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Old June 10th 04, 06:29 PM
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One of the Diretors at Parker once told me that Reagan was the first and
only president who had ever specifically asked for a ball point: They always
used to supply fountain pens for these ceremonies.

OTOH I suppose they ALL use ball points nowadays as giveaways? Which is even
odder if you think about it as a FP giveaway is so much classier than the 2c
ball points I have seen used this way. Those ball points ALWAYS look cheap
and nasty? (or in the case of the Cross, they are so small that they look
totally inconsequential when taken out of their presentation box)

I suppose the vaguely inexpensive fountain pens which are actively marketed
are mostly made by Pilot these days?

Licensed to Quill

"James Goodwin" wrote in message
om...
Ron Wilbanks wrote in message

.com...
During an interview last night with a former White House staff member
during the Reagan Administration, he mentioned that Ronald always had a
lot of pens on hand that he was fond of. Some of them were gifts from
foreign dignitaries and friends from all over the world.

I am curious, what kinds of pens did he mostly use and what kind of
fountain pen did he sign important bills and documents with? I think
somebody once commented on here that he did an advertisement for a pen
company in the 1940s?

Interestingly, I see that President Bush never uses a fountain pen,
preferring a rollerball or a ballpoint?



I had the same thought as you did. FYI, look at website Parker75 and
you will get some information about Parker pens he used. The 1987 INF
treaty was signed with specially made Parker Keepsake sterling silver
pens in wooden boxes with both leaders names engraved on the side of
the cap. I am curious as to where the pen with Gorbachev's name is
located. (Both Reagan and Gorbachev exchanged pens after signing the
treaty when Gorbachev initiated the request and Reagan graciously
reciprocated.) Is it in the Reagan Museum or is it in his personal
effects at his Bel Air home? It would be nice if Gorbachev donated
his Reagan pen to the Reagan Library where both pens could reside in
perpetual display in their boxes alongside each other below the
explanation of this event.

FYI, the Parker Pen company was the preferred supplier of pens to the
White House which were used for bill signers and gifts to foreign
dignataries and friends. I presume that Reagan had every opportunity
to sample the company's products and did take advantage of the
opportunity as I am sure thatt he pen he used in the office was a
Parker product. I do not know what kind he used or preferred to use -
fountain pens, roller balls or ball points.

I checked website for Reagan library to see if they had a collection
of the pens he used in his duties or even as gifts from world leaders.
Much to my disappointment, there is no mention of such in the
website. The only way to get an answer is to have one of the
penlovers in the California area pay a visit to the Reagan library to
see if such a colleciton exists in the display or even in the storage
areas and report to the rest of us on his or her findings.

In another related search of Richard Nixon who was a lover of Parker
pens, I was not able to find out if his pen collection survived intact
to be displayed in the museum. I recall from memory that someone who
owns a restaurant in Whittier has a glass display of the pens Richard
Nixon used in the White House and the pens may range from the mundane
to the exotic as Nixon sampled a lot of the Parker products that came
his way through the White House. Parker used to be the preferred
supplier of pens to the White House until they closed shop in
Janesville, Wisconsin and moved to Newhaven, England. Now Cross has
replaced Parker as the preferred pen supplier as they manufacture pens
in Rhode Island.

So, we do need confirmation of this from local penlovers in California
who would be willing to check things out and report back to us on this
newsgroup.

To answer the question about Bush, he uses Cross rollerball pens as
bill signers or daily writers. They are blue with his name printed
along the cap. Guess he prefers the ease and cleaniless of a
rollerball as to a fountain pen which requires maintance to keep it
clog free.

James K. Goodwin



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