it was largely a triple to tom whitehead. -- attributable to tom whitehead. i thought he hired me because he wanted someone in the office who was further out on the geek scale and he was. i shared a vast office in building to which tom eventually was forced to move. my desk came equipped with a bell system lobbyist. [laughter]his name was marvin holton. his job was to take me and others to launch once or twice a week and to provide anecdotes of telephone lure. i was not singled out for this honor. marvin came with the desk. everyone at otm had an assigned bell lobbyist. marvin was not an ideal fit for me. he did not know anything about economics and cared request -- last. he gate and disbelief when i told him the virtual of competitive enterprise. he never got comfortable with my paying for my own lunch. [laughter]that meant he had to pay for his. marvin was a telephone engineer and devoted to the appreciation of electromechanical telephone switches. he quietly confided to me that his favorites which was the number five crossbar. [laughter]he would come up to

tom whitehead made a difference. thank you. [laughter] [applause] >> i first met tom in about 1970 around the time that his policy was formed and tom became the first director. my connection to him was initially working with him at the radio laboratories at the department of commerce in boulder. as i recall, walter had worked in the white house under a commerce technology on the science fellowship program. that is where he met tom. i don't remember my first meeting with tom. but at the time, i was a very junior analyst and a small group within the labs that supplied support to ott, in connection to the president. i don't recall the details, but i do remember that we seem to hit it off pretty well. we were both almost exactly the same age. we were both born in 1938. we were both from the midwest and very early in our prospective careers. as i will say, i will have a little bit more to say here in a moment. we were both licensed amateur radio operators, or hams. not surprised, i was totally fascinated by his intellectual capabilit