There’s a new person in charge of making sure the fridge at the White House is stocked with the Obamas’ favorite food.
Angella Reid, the general manager of the Ritz Carlton in Arlington, Va., is taking over as chief usher of the White House and director of the president’s executive residence, becoming the first woman to hold the position. She starts in November, the White House announced on Tuesday.
The former chief usher, Rear Adm. Stephen Rochon, left the position earlier this year for a job with the Department of Homeland Security.
Reid, who will be the ninth person to be chief usher, will be charged with managing the residence, overseeing an annual inventory of White House property, and working with other offices to put on events like state dinners. Some have spent decades in the role; the first chief usher started in 1901, according to the White House.
In an interview with C-Span, former Chief Usher Gary Walters, who served from 1986 to 2007, describes the chaos of moving out one first family while moving in the incoming one on Inauguration Day. He said his staff had four to six hours to complete the turnaround, and said that the idea of overseeing another Inauguration Day was “probably the thing that caused me to retire more than anything else.”
“The next day the president’s the president of the United States and he’s got enough on his mind, and there’s enough demands for the first lady, so it’s our objective to, in a short period of time, convert the house over and make the house a home, which is not always easy,” Walters said.
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