Responding to National Needs
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CHAPTER SIX METROLOGY MAKES ROOM FOR INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTIVITY (February 1990-April 1993). With the change in name reinforcing-on a continual, daily basis-a change in the way that the former National Bureau of Standards was perceived both within and outside the venerable institution, it fell to new leadership to define the myriad of details by which traditional metrology would co-exist with expanded efforts to boost U.S. industrial productivity. The new legislation made clear that NIST should maintain its historical role as the U.S. authority on standards of measurement. Yet the same legislation called explicitly for emphasis on programs meant for the rescue of American industry in the interna tional economic arena. Managing the balance between these sometimes conflicting goals fell to John Lyons and his senior management staff. By the time Lyons completed his 3-year term as director, the new orthodoxy of industrial productivity had replaced the standards-and-science orientation of the old National Bureau of Standards. Only time would tell whether the dual roles could co-exist in the same unique institution. GEORGE HERBERT WALKER BUSH George Bush was a man of many accomplishments and a Washington insider since 1966. The son of Senator Prescott Bush of Connecticut, George was a decorated Navy pilot in World War II and a graduate of Yale University in 1948. He was an oil company executive for several years prior to his election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1966 and 1968, representing Houston, Texas. He was appointed by President Nixon to be Ambassador to the United Nations in 1971 and served as Chairman of the Republican National Committee during Watergate. President Ford posted him as chief of the U.S. Liaison Office in Peking in 1974, and as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency in 1976. In 1980, Ronald Reagan chose Bush as his Vice-Presidential running mate. Their Republican ticket handily beat the Democratic team of President Jimmy Carter and Vice President Walter F. Mondale, winning 489 of the 537 available electoral votes. The Reagan-Bush ticket won again in 1984, defeating Walter Mondale and Geraldine Ferraro by an even larger margin. Bush was effective as Reagan's Vice-President, leading the administration's battles on regulatory reform and an anti-drug campaign, assisting the President with crisis management, and serving well as Reagan's surrogate when the President was shot by John Hinckley. 641 Running for President on his own in 1988, Bush chose Danforth Quayle as his candidate for Vice-President. They faced Michael S. Dukakis of Massachusetts and Lloyd Bentsen of Texas in a campaign nearly devoid of issues save those of personal- ity. The voter turnout on election day fell to 50 % of eligible voters—the lowest in more than 60 years. However, the Bush-Quayle ticket still won easily. One of Bush's early tasks was to nominate a permanent director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology. This he did, on November 17, 1989; he nominated John W. Lyons, a career scientist and at that time the director of the NIST National Engineering Laboratory.' During his term as America's 41st president, Bush saw the end of the Evil Empire— the Berlin Wall was breached in 1989, and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics collapsed in 1991 into a loose federation of tentative democracies. The Reagan-Bush policy of militant anti-communism contributed heavily to the termination of the Cold War; Bush gladly undertook the construction of a suitable U.S. stance with respect to post-Cold-War Eastern Europe. Bush directed the U.S. participation in the Persian Gulf War in early 1991 that successfully liberated Kuwait, overrun by the Iraq military during 1990. Although the U.N. forces stopped short of total victory, the United States, and thus its President, stood tall as the defender of militarily weak nations. Although he basked in the glory of America's armed might, Bush was required to face the punishing trade and budget deficits that he inherited from his predecessor. He found it increasingly tricky to reduce the deficits while struggling with military cutbacks mandated by the end of the Cold War. His efforts brought on a recession and rising unemployment that persisted throughout his term of office. Bush also presided over the resolution of a financial scandal arising from the insolvency of a number of profligate savings and loan institutions; rescue of the defunct businesses cost the U.S. treasury more than $100 billion. President Bush chose Robert A. Mosbacher, Sr., a flamboyant Texas oilman, to be Secretary of Commerce in 1988. In 1992, while Bush was campaigning for re-election, he replaced Mosbacher with Barbara H. Franklin, former Commissioner of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (1972-78) and more recently (1979-88) Senior Fellow of the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. William J. Clinton, Governor of Arkansas, successfully gained the presidential nomination of the Democratic party in 1992. With Albert Gore, Jr. as his running mate, Clinton attacked the Bush-Quayle economic policies vigorously. H. Ross Perot, an independent candidate for President, added spice to an already heated campaign. In an election that attracted the highest voter participation since 1968, the Clinton-Gore team defeated both the Bush-Quayle slate and the Perot-Stockdale ticket. Clinton's election, preventing a second term for George Bush, would also spell the end of John Lyons' tenure as NIST director. '"Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents," 25, p. 1774, 1989. 642 JOHN WINsHIP LYONS If there was one NIST manager who was at ease with the change of name and modification of purpose as stated in the 1988 revision of the NBS Organic Act, that manager was John Lyons, nominated by President George Bush on November 17, 1989, to be the ninth Director of the agency newly re-named the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Lyons was employed for 20 years by the Monsanto Corporation before joining the staff of NBS in 1973. There he had seen re-orgariiza- tions, technical re-alignments, and changes in corporate goals on many occasions. He expressed his views on the changes wrought by Public Law 100-418 plainly: The Bureau is whatever the Congress says it is. Congress is the Board of Directors and what they say, by definition that is what you are.2 Lyons was raised in Boston and graduated from Harvard College with a A.B. degree in chemistry. After 2 years of service in the U.S. Army, he joined the Monsanto Corporation as a chemist. During his service with Monsanto, he obtained M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in physical chemistry from Washington University in St. Louis. While at Monsanto, Lyons investigated the chemistry of phosphorus compounds, the behavior of polyelectrolytes in solution, and rheology. Participation on an evaluation panel for the NBS fire program led to his joining NBS in October 1973 to head the program.3 During that year, a report entitled America Burning, issued by the National Commission on Fire Prevention, awakened the country to America's deplorable fire-safety record. The United States suffered the highest death rate from fire among all industrial nations, and the worst property-loss rate, too. Spurred by the impact of the report, the 93rd Congress enacted the Federal Fire Prevention and Control Act of 1974; it mandated, among other things, the creation of a Center for Fire Research at NBS. Lyons became the first director of the new center.4 During the NBS reorganization of 1977-78, Director Ernest Ambler selected Lyons to lead the planning of a new entity, a National Engineering Laboratory, and then to become its first director. The NEL included centers for applied mathematics, electron- ics and electrical engineering, mechanical engineering and process technology, building technology, fire research, and consumer products. Lyons spent more than a decade working with Ambler and the NEL managers to complete an organization—eventually including a separate chemical engineering unit—that could interact with American industry in all the engineering areas.5 His leadership in the NBS fire program and in the creation and management of NEL earned him election in the National Academy of Engineering. Ultimately, Lyons was entirely at ease with the idea that NBS could provide direct assistance to bolster U.S. industry in its efforts to adopt the most modern methods of manufacturing. 2 John Lyons, Oral History. June I, 1993. NBS Admin. Bull. 73-70, October 29, 1973. "See Chapt. 3. The Bureau Gets a New Fire Law and a New Fire Center. Lyons, Oral History, June I, 1993. 643 John W. Lyons was the ninth director of NBS/NIST. Aware in 1988 that Ernest Ambler intended to retire within months, Lyons hoped to succeed him. A decade of management experience in the engineering/technology area of NBS provided Lyons with a background that matched well the emphasis on technology transfer sought by congressional authors of the 1988 Trade Act.6 As noted above, President Bush nominated Lyons for director on November 17, 1989. During his confirmation hearing in February 1990, he was asked about his view of the future for NIST. His response was optimistic: In some critical aspects the Institute will be unchanged in the years ahead. We shall still have a substantial core of fundamental research in science and engineering and thereby serve both our internal interests and those of the technical community at large. We shall continue our dedication to excellence in all of our activities. We shall continue to work on the basic physical and chemical standards of measurement on which our National quality assurance systems are based and provide the necessary services to all those seeking to base their work on ours.