Vanderbilt to USS Potomac Wally Abernathy’s Legacy of Leadership

 He used that ship to meet with Churchill for the first time in secrecy up, um, in newfound. The secret service guy was dressed up as Roosevelt with his cigarette and waving in his hat, and people thought that was Roosevelt, or Roosevelt was on another ship. The Potomac somehow ended up at Pier 26 at the Port of San Francisco, along with another ship, and they were both carrying the flags of the Triple Children's Society of America.

The only problem was, was that other ship. It had 20 tons of Columbian marijuana on it. If you were going to share advice to young people about peak performance, seek out a mentor or seek out mentors, uh, people that will, uh, take you under their wing and, uh, and share their success and their failures with you.

So you can benefit from that. I think that's extremely important. In this episode of the Pathway to Peak Performance, we hear Sage advice from Wally Abernathy, from Vanderbilt, to saving the USS Potomac and all the things that he's done in his career. This is one to watch. Welcome to the show, Wally Abernathy.

We're gonna talk about all sorts of things today that are gonna be super interesting and fun. Going all the way back from your childhood all the way through your career. And then we're also gonna talk about the USS Potomac, which is gonna be very interesting how you actually achieve peak performance to restore a vessel that's so important to the history of the United States of America.

So welcome to the show, but before we get started, one thing I wanna say to you is that, as you know on this podcast, which is the pathway to peak performance, all of the proceeds from the show. The views that you know, YouTube pays us. Go to the charity of your choice. Now I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that your charity is probably gonna be the USS Potomac Association.

I think you've got that right. All right, fantastic. Great to have you here. So let's talk about your, you know, origin story. Where did you start? Well, I started in, uh, 1936 on July one, on a very hot day. I understand. I don't recall, but, uh, that's where I started and I've been going ever since. Alright. And you started in, in Louisville, Kentucky.

And you have to be born there to say it properly. It's not Louisville. It's Louisville. Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky. Louisville, Kentucky. So if you see it that way, and they'll let you in. I guess I've been around you long enough to know how to say it. So from there, you, you grow up, you chose Vanderbilt University.

How did that all happen? Well, I, I was, uh, I went to a military school, uh, boarding school for, uh, four years for high school, and that was very, very disciplined. Um, and there were a lot of. People from that boarding school that, uh, that went on down to Vanderbilt, which was in Nashville, which was the next state down in Tennessee.

So it was a popular destination, and in those days I was able to get in somehow and I was able to stay in somehow victory. All right. And then from there, what's next? When I, when I got out, I was, uh, I, I went through ROTC in at Vanderbilt, and as, as, as part of that, you had to enter into the military service.

And so I had choice of six months or two years, and I ended up with a two year assignment. And so. That assignment sent me from Nashville, Tennessee to Fort Ard, California to be at, uh, at the Infantry, infantry base there. So, uh, in 1959 I went to Fort Ard and it was, uh, discouraging because when I got there, they told me, oh, Lieutenant, we're, we're very sorry, but.

We don't have any places for you to live on the base. We're gonna have to give you a housing allowance and you're gonna have to live in Carmel for two years. Then it was the best two years of my life. And then when I started in the military, they had me out, uh, infantry with the troops out on, uh, on the firing line, learning how to do the artery.

And then I got a call with, I like to serve on the general, general staff and be in charge of putting out the post newspaper. So I lived for two years in Carmel with the civilian job almost, of doing the post newspaper. And it was the best of my life. I wish I was still doing it. Yeah. That would not be, uh, such a bad assignment.

Right? Pretty good. Yeah. Who knew? Yeah. Alright, so you get outta the army and then what's next from there? Well, then I, uh, I, I'd had this experience at, uh, at, in the military almost having a civilian job. We put out the post newspaper, I wrote the speeches for the general, we did press releases, so we had kind of an, an advertising type back, uh, background.

And we actually had, as part of our department, a radio show every morning for the post. And that was so, so we, we picked up some civilian skills and so when I got out, I, uh, went into advertising, uh, working for Standard Oil for a very short period of time, and then eventually moved over to Oakland and working for the Chamber of Commerce, uh, in Oakland doing promotion work.

Uh, and did that until I went to the Port of Oakland. And you have pretty interesting story at the Port of Oakland. I mean, let's talk about that. Well, uh, when I got to the Port of Oakland, it was, uh, a modest ized port. Most of the action, uh, trend, uh, maritime activity was in San Francisco at the time. Uh, but we started developing for containerization, which was just starting to happen.

And, uh, we started building facilities. And, uh, when I first went there, we might have had about 10, 15% of the cargo that came under the Golden Gate Bridge. And, uh, today it's probably 95% of a much bigger volume. So it's one of the major ports in the, in the country. I was fortunate to be there for 25 years and 23 of those years I was either the port director or the deputy.

Yeah, you, you have accomplished a lot at the Port of Oakland. I mean, that's a huge expansion. The port Port includes the airport too, and there's about 19 miles of real estate within the port's domain. So it's a big operation. So for a young guy like me, it was a good place to learn and and to grow with that port.

So if you were to think back. What was your path to peak performance when you got there? Did you feel like you had it all figured out or did you feel like you had a lot to learn? You were trying to, you were scrambling all the time. What was, what was going on in your mind in those days? Well, I, I knew, I didn't know at all 'cause I was, I was a real young guy, but the part director at that time, a fellow named Ben Nutter.

Uh, who was a legend in, in the, in the port business around the world, and was one of the founders of the whole containerization movement. He had a lot to do with making it happen. Uh, took me under my wing and so I really had a good wing man to, uh, to learn. And he gave me a lot of, of, uh, experience and he gave me a lot of flexibility and a lot of latitude.

And so eventually when he retired, um, they asked me to continue in his step footsteps. So, uh, I, I really had a great mentor and that was so important and to, uh, to learn from him, which I did and I always appreciate. And on the West coast, really, the two largest ports really are gonna be Long Beach and Oakland, right?

Well, not really. The, uh, as it, as it developed, Oakland was one of the first to container rise Oakland and, and, and cl. With that massive civilization down there in Southern California, that tends to attract the ships in there first because to serve that population base. So the ships that are coming in, typically from, from the Pacific, uh, from from the far east.

We'll tend to go into LA first bringing in imports, and then the ships tend to usually come up to the coast and go to Oakland for the outbound cargo, inbound and outbound, but a lot of outbound. So we're a lot of export activities from Oakland import activities into LA and import is a bigger activity than exports.

Yep. So I've seen some pictures of you with, uh, Jimmy Carter. Richard Nixon, I mean, like you, you had a lot of people that arrived. What, what was the story behind the Jimmy Carter picture? I'm just curious. Uh uh, well, Jimmy Carter, um, was, was uh, running for Reelections at that time and he made a visit to the Port of Oakland.

And, and so when that happened, uh, the Secret Service and the others just take over your operation. They kind of run it for a few days there. And so he was a wonderful guy to talk to and he wanted to be. Didn't wanna be. We first withhold we'd take him out a, a, a yacht and show him the port. He wanted to see the port, but he wanted to be on a working man's boat, so he wanted to be on the fireboat.

So. I was waiting in the Fireboat and when he landed, um, at the Oakland Airport and then came out to get on the boat, first thing, he was such a charming guy. He got first thing, oh, he said, I've heard so much about you. Well, I know he hadn't heard anything about me but it, for a young kid it would awful ice to hear something like that.

And so he had his wife with him and she was charming to, and so we then did a tour on this fire boat. Going along and I'm explaining to him what the ship is and that ship. And as the port director, you don't really know the ships are changing every hour. You can't keep up with, but I knew what was, I had a briefing of what was happening and um, I was telling him.

And then we went to an area that had a big factory and I said, uh, Mr. President, that's, that's part of the part, but it's really not maritime. It's, it's actually a dog. They make dog food there. And he looked and he says, boy, how do they make dog food? I said, Mr. President, I know a little bit about the pork business, but I know anything about the dog food business.

He said, probably just as well. Probably just as well. But he, he, he was put you at ease. Told stories. He started, oh, I saw this movie. You ought to see this movie. See, tell him what Wally about this movie, and go, oh my god. And then he was gone and never saw him again. Of course, but, but, uh, but he, he, he was, he was charming guy and a real damn Darth.

Ah, that's super. You had an interesting, uh, interaction with Al Davis, the owner of the Oakland Raiders. I didn't know you knew that one. Yeah. Tell me about the, the, uh, Al Davis story. Well, Al Davis. Al Davis, um. Had had two properties, uh, two activities on Port of Oakland property. One of them, he had his headquarters building in his, which was across from the Coliseum on property that he bought from the Port of Oakland.

And his next door lot was owned by the Port of Oakland. There was a practice field it, so when they weren't. In actual season at the Coliseum they had in the back area of the Oakland Airport, they had a practice field that they used for training and they kept active at it all the time. And so, um, part of that is he only paid a dollar.

We only charged him a dollar for that property, for the practice fields. So he. Uh, that lease. Because of that, it said we could, when he wasn't using it, we could use it for other purposes, like for recreational purposes, for, for the, for the kids of the community and that sort of thing. So, along came another league that was being set up at the time and that, uh, that didn't happen, but they were gonna set up another league that we competitive.

And, um, the, the league wanted to use our practice field when it wasn't being used by the Raiders. So I said, well, you could do that. We'll let you use it. Well, Al Davis came down on me like a load of Brooks Bricks. There's no way, no matter what the lease says, was he gonna let another football team use his practice field.

So we ended up in court and I ended up, uh, before the Judge Davis' attorneys were asking me a number of questions about my knowledge of football, whether those two activities could be compatible. And I said, well, they obviously, they could be this. And then, uh, they had, uh, Al Davis on, and they, um, had previously asked him, they said, Mr.

Davis, I see you have a ring on your thing. What, what is it? What's a Super Bowl? He said, I see you have another one. Oh, that's Super Bowl. You. Oh, you have another one? That's another Super Bowl. And then when I got on, he said, Mr. Abernathy, how many Super Bowl rings do you have? At which point Al Davis won the lawsuit?

Uh, Al Davis won the lawsuit. That's, uh, what a story. Um, so right about that time, was it before or after all of that, that the Potomac comes along in your life? Uh, it was after, um, the Potomac happened in, uh, 1981. We bought it and it was, uh, an interesting purchase. Right. Tell me the full story. Well, the Potomac, you know, it was, um.

It, it, it was amazing. It's just amazing history. Uh, it was, uh, started out as a rum runner, rum chaser and ended up as a, a drug boat. Uh, it went from being law enforcement to be enforced by the law. And, um, it was a Coast Guard cutter that was, that was built as a series of cutters to defend the coastline against.

People bringing in illegal alcohol during prohibition. And that was a, that was a big business. There was like, uh, like 200 ships out there beyond the 12 mile limit, bringing in liquor into the United States when liquor was illegal. And so the Potomac was one of a series of ships that were designed to stop that.

Um, but it, and it was built as a, as a submarine chaser. It had, it was very, very mobile, very uh, very good at that maneuverability. Um, and, and, and the Potomac, when it came along, prohibition was over, but there, it went out and did parole for about a year because, uh, there were still people trying to bring liquor in and not pay tax on it.

Uh, so, uh, but then, uh, president Roosevelt, who, uh, had had, uh, uh, been the president, uh, at a 1930, uh, six. Had decided he wanted another presidential yacht because the one that he used was the Sequoia, which was a wooden hall, and he was paralyzed and was very fearful of being on a ship that might be exposed to fire.

Mm-hmm. And the, and the Potomac was, was, uh, then called the Electra Coast Guard Cutter. He Roosevelt picked that out and he transferred it to the Navy. They rebuilt it to make it a presidential yacht. And spent $50,000 as I recall doing that. And part of that was to put a phony smoke stock on it with an elevator so that FDR, 'cause he changed levels, could move himself up by hand in that, um, in that smoke stock, which would just open up.

And then there was the president of the United States. And so, uh, he then converted it to the Potomac, became his presidential yacht in 1936. Used it all the time. He was just literally lived on it. We recently did a survey of, uh, the log of the ship. And, uh, for the time that he was there, he, I think he had 75 separate trips and I think only one or two were day trips.

The rest of 'em were overnight weekends, many, many days, uh, down in Texas, fishing up in, uh, up the Hudson River. He was all over on that ship and, and he did lots of big important history points on that. He made his decision to run a third time on that ship and did the strategy on that ship. He used that ship to meet with Churchill for the first time in secrecy of, um, in newfound, by the way, I'm sorry to interrupt you on that, but I just wanted to ask you about it.

Did he had like a dummy of himself, right? He didn't actually use the ship, he just made it appear that he was on the ship and then took another vessel to meet Churchill. Is that how it works? No, not well, partly right. But what he did, he actually announced that he was going on a New England fishing trip on the Potomac and it was announced that was his plan.

So he got on the Potomac in, in, in, uh, in Massachusetts and toured around and waved at people and did all that sort of thing. And then in the middle of the night, he moved over to, um, uh, another Navy ship that then moved him in secret to, up into Newfoundland, where he then met with Churchill for their, uh, their, their meeting, which, uh.

You've developed the Atlantic Conference. Um, then while he was on that, the Secret Service guy was dressed up as Roosevelt with his cigarette and waving in his hat, and people thought that was Roosevelt or Roosevelt was on another ship. And then when the conference was over, he got back on the Potomac, came back to New England and had a press conference telling the world.

What had just been happened. So he told the world that he was on a fishing trip or he told the world, he told the world really right. That he had met with Churchill and he waited for a while because he wanted to make sure Churchill got safely back to England without, uh, the German U-boats knowing that he'd been over here.

Right. Yeah. So the Potomac was a decoy for that. And he used it. Another time He used it. He went to a, he went to a meeting, um, in, uh, 19. 43, I think it was for, uh, the Tehran Conference with Churchill again. And in this, this case was stalled. And, uh, he moved in secret from, uh, from the White House on the Potomac to Chesapeake Bay where he transferred to another ship and moved in secret again to this, for that meeting.

So, lots of history. Lots of history. Um, and then where does the Potomac go after that? There's a lot of history here with FDR. Then there's a lot of history just that keeps going with the Potomac. So what's the next stop for the Potomac? Well, uh, Roosevelt died in 1945, and that was the end of the Potomac.

Well, Truman used it a few times. One of the times Truman used it actually was, and he did some of the planning for the dropping of the bomb on Hiroshima a while out in the Potomac. But, uh, RO after Roosevelt died. The Potomac then reverted back from the Navy to the Coast Guard, and then the next year they, the government sold it to the, to the, uh, state of Maryland, which became a yacht for the, for the governor.

And they had it for about 14 years, as I recall. And it was used extensively for ceremonial purposes for the governor. They, the Maryland paid $10, so they got a pretty good deal. They had more that, more fuel on it than that. But, uh, it, it had an accident there and then the government of Maryland decided to get rid of it, and that's kinda started its downfall.

Somebody bought. For about 65,000 I think. And they moved it down to the Caribbean. They were gonna use it as a ferry back and forth between the islands there and exhibit. Um, then somebody else bought it. They were gonna move it around through the canal up to a world's fair in Seattle. It was being planned at the time.

Um, the, the Austin engine, they had trouble. They never, they never made the world's fair. Um, they timely got through the canal. They lost their crew there and it just became sort of continuing to deteriorate, um, on the on, but now on the West Coast. So it had gotten around. That's how it got up to our, to our coast.

And um, Elvis Presley came along and bought it, uh, from those people in 1964 and he paid $55,000, if I'm remembering correctly. And, um, he wanted to save it because of his fondness for Roosevelt. His first plan was to give it to the March of Dimes, which had been Roosevelt's. Basic charity for, for infantile paralysis.

Um, and, uh, they were very excited about it until they spent a couple days looking at it and realized they had more of a liability than an asset just to maintain it. So they said, thank you Elvis, but no thanks. And then, uh, Elvis had a meeting with Danny Thomas, which was filmed, and it was a big deal.

Colonel Parker, or his, his agent, um, didn't orchestrate it all. Um, at that point Elvis gave it to Danny Thomas and St. Jude's Hospital in Memphis, and they took it and it was great, and they were gonna move it back to Memphis and make it a tourist attraction. But then after a little investigation, they said, boom.

And go, maybe this isn't such a smart thing to do, 'cause it's got more cost than, than, uh, money associated with it. And so then Elvis uh, went auction and sold it to another party. And at that point, um, he disappeared. The ship was around. Eventually we had different owners. We kinda lost control. It continued to get into worse and worse shape.

It finally ended up, uh, in Stockton, I think in 1979. Uh, and then in 1980 the Potomac somehow ended up at Pier 26 at the Port of San Francisco, along with another ship, and they were both carrying the flags of the Triple Children's Society of America. The only problem was, is that other ship. Had 20 tons of and marijuana on it.

And it was the biggest, uh, uh, uh, smuggling of marijuana in at that point in time in the United States history. Uh, and, uh, the Feds were aware of that. And so at 19 80 80, uh, the Fed swooped down on it. They arrested everybody that was involved. Uh, and they took the, the, uh, the ship with the marijuana that Potoma didn't have any, but it had that same flag on it.

So they arrested the Potomac and in, in nautical law, you can arrest a ship, like you arrest a person. So the government had control of the Potomac. They took it over to Treasure Island, and after, uh, uh, several months. It managed to sink. It had Treasure Island and it had been underneath the water were some pilings that were still, were submerged.

That pierced the halt. So, uh, in March of, uh, in 19 80, 19 81, I guess it was, there was a big picture on the front page of the Chronicle and newspapers all over the country of this once proud yacht. The presidential yacht now at really at its lowest point, it was underwater. Uh, with, you could see the piling sticking through it, and that's what the Potomac had had come to.

And then, uh, the government auctioned it off, uh, in, uh, in April, uh, that year. That auction, I happened to be a portrait at the time and it was happening just below my window and, um, in my office. And which was you on the Oakland asteroid? A Jack London Square. So I looked out and I, I've never seen such a swarm of, of interest.

I mean, there was news media were all over, I mean, all kinds of cameras and news people. There were tremendous human interest in this selling of this once proud yacht. And um, so I was fascinated as a kid. I've been really fond of Roosevelt to like that southern song, you know, Mr. Roosevelt's gonna save us all.

And he was be one of our heroes. So I was interested in, in Roosevelt and, and in the, in the project. And, uh, at the time, the director of customs knocked on my door and said, uh, we're auctioning this off. Would you like to put in an opening bid? I an opening bid? What's the idea? So we kind of talked around and said, well, maybe 15,000.

So I said, well, gimme 30 minutes. Gimme an hour to look into this. So the, you can see there wasn't a lot of depth of that. I called the port attorney, I said, can I buy it? And he said, yep. And then I called the port engineer and I said, can I buy it? And he said, yeah, but don't. And, uh, so then the auction proceeded.

I went down and they said opening bid. And I raised the thing for 15,000 and my arm hadn't even gotten up, but he said sold. So we had, we had acquired it, at which point the federal guys were so, so, so, so helpful. They, they took the pumps off 'cause they were paying for the pumps that were keeping the vessel from sinking.

So we had to re had to re-rent the pumps to keep it from sale. And so then we had a project. Or we had either that or a disaster, one or the other, and that, that, that kind of got us into it, that's a heck of a situation to be in. All of a sudden, what happens next? Well, then we had to realize that, uh, this thing has been deteriorating.

Nobody has been able to restore this, and it's a huge activity. And anybody who really knows anything about. Maritime and, and, uh, engineering knows that, that that's a major, major project. So, uh, we sat down and the port then was the owner of the ship and we laid out some objectives for what if we were gonna restore it, why were we gonna restore and how are we gonna restore and for what, you know, for what purpose?

And we decided we really didn't wanna just restore it as to be another kind of boat in a bathtub tied to a wharf. We want it to be. An operating vessel just like it had been when FDR had it as his presidential yacht. Um, and so then we reached out to the community to see who would support it, because it's not the Port of Oakland's job to do this.

It's a community job. It's a broader job. We hoped the Port of Oakland would step back if we got it started, but we did have the engineering horsepower and the management horsepower to, uh, to manage that kind of project. So, uh, we brought some top people in. We got great support. The maritime community came in a big way.

American President Wine, their CEO became a, had a major supporter. Uh, we had the fellow who had been the president of Kaiser engineer, huge engineering company, had just retired, volunteered his time. He worked with us almost for four or five years. We gave him a little office in one our, so he could bring that engineering talent.

So we had great volunteers. Uh, Jimmy Roosevelt, the Roosevelt family got involved. Uh, he was charming guy Jimmy told me, uh, at that point here, FDR was our greatest president and he, there was no monument to him at that point in time. And Jimmy said there's nothing his father would appreciate more than the restoration of that ship.

'cause he had had so many wonderful hours on it. He loved his time on it and he'd been so productive on that ship. And so he said the family would support it a hundred percent. So with that kind of support behind it and with the sort of project management capabilities of the port and our engineering staff and our total, total, total activities, we launched the project and uh, after a lot of work we brought in, uh, two and a half million that we raised and we got the two and a half million dollar grant.

From the federal government through the support of President Ronald Reagan, uh, we were able to then raise the money to bring the project alive and then open back in 1995, I think it was. Wow. Is this 45 years later? I guess it is, yeah. 45 years. And you're still with it? That's a pretty big commitment. Well, I've spent a lot of time, I really, I really love the ship, I love the project.

Uh, I dunno if I've mentioned this stuff, but it, it is the oldest Navy ship that's decommissioned, but oldest navy ship in daily operation in the whole world. Um, and it's got and, and, and, and, and Roosevelt so spent so much time on there. I mean, we had the king and the queen on there. We had the Queen of the Netherlands.

We had Prince Crown, princess Martha of Norway. We had every member of the cabinet was on it. Uh. It just one dignitary after another. It was, he did so much thinking on that boat. He did the planning, he did planning for, uh, Lendlease. That was the program that the US then made available money to, to Great Britain and Russia to fight the, the, the Germans and, and the Italians.

So we were prohibited at that point in time from giving away money or supporting them. So Roosevelt came up with a concept. What we'll do is we'll lend them things and they'll pay back when they're able to, which was, you know, amazing. And so that, that, that basically helped start us winning the war, uh, and saved England from the, the Nazi invasion.

And he and he, he signed the appropriation, the first appropriation. For that Land Leach was signed on the Potomac on one of his fishing trips. So it's just one history thing after another. Yeah. I mean, you could go on for hours and hours. Right, right. So when you think back on that, there had to have been moments where you thought to yourself, what did I get myself into?

Is that an accurate statement? Well, I guess I wasn't, uh, smart of that to, to think about that. I remember they, they called it Wally's Folly. For a long, long time is that they would, I was pursuing this kind of crazy thing because I was interested in it and I was a port director so I could manage resources, but, but there the, there was this enthusiasm for all, everybody was very interested in seeing this thing happen.

There was a time when the, you know, public opinion really turned and everybody was like, wow, the Potomac is a huge national treasure that's right here in the Bay Area, and how lucky are we to have this? That must have felt pretty good. Yeah, it did. Where, when, uh, you know, if you, if you look at so many of the historical monuments and recognitions, most of it's on the East coast.

You know, we don't have that, that, that connection with history that the east coast of the United States has. And Roosevelt, they've got the n as I say, when we started the project, there was no monument. But, um, you've got the National monument now in Washington. You've got the, uh, his presidential library at Hyde Park.

You've got Campo the summer home, you've got Warm Springs where he died and where he, he recovered from polio there for many years. And then there's us. So we've got all this history there and we're the only point of it, uh, on the West Coast. And, and one of the purposes of our project was to bring that history to the West Coast.

People understandably say, well, you know, why is this here? And well, it's a long story as I just explained how it's here, but it, but it is here and it is restored here. And, uh, we think it brings, uh, an important part of history to our West Coast neighbors. Yeah. Well there was definitely a pathway to peak performance to make that happen.

Uh, a lot of work and a lot of work goes into it today, and it's amazing to see how much you've continued to be, I mean, I have to say. If you take a look at that, it's 45 years of continuous effort to make sure something is preserved. That's a tremendous like accomplishment. So thank you. Um, we're gonna move past the Potomac now, um, and talk about some other things.

So you retire from the port and all of a sudden you get a company, you get a call from a company that wants you to move to England, uh, and do something because of your experience with aviation. Work on some aviation related stuff, and then the next thing you know, you're building an airport in the Caribbean.

Right? Right. Let's talk about that. Well, I, when I retired from the port, I did some consulting for a while. Um, and I ended up, uh, doing a lot of work for Bechtel, the engineering company, actually probably the largest private, private engineering company in the world. Um, tremendous outreach and tremendous talents.

Um, I ended up, uh, involved in some of their financial projects and, uh, and for a while headed their aviation effort worldwide. And when I was doing that, uh, we were living in, we, we, uh, we lived in England for a couple of years while I was in that had that responsibility. But at Bechtel I did, uh, all kinds of, uh, interesting projects.

We worked on a project in the Panama Canal to connect the two ports with a railroad. Uh, and, um, had some stiff competition from the Chinese, which, uh, didn't follow all the rules that we had to follow in terms of bidding public contracts. I did work in Brazil. We did a major project that I presented to the president of Brazil.

Uh, we did a project, uh, worked on a project, uh, uh, in the, in the Middle East where we were going to try to bring water from Turkey across Israel. Uh. Into the Middle East, um, uh, and, uh, and worked with the Israeli government and others on, on that project. So I had wonderful experiences and got to deal on, uh, big projects, uh, in exciting times.

Uh, after I retired from Tel Aviation, they don't necessarily let you go. They said, ask if I would like to go down in, uh, in the Caribbean. Dutch Island, um, just to, um, get started closing a franchise to take over the airport for 25 years and build a new terminal. And if I'd set it up and spent about a year there, uh, they would appreciate it.

And so I went down and seven, seven years later I'd crawl out. And we did get the airport built, the terminal built, and it's been successful ever since. But that was a lot of fun. And that's when I then came back and, and retired. Became the, uh, the accountant at my wife's, uh, retail store. Yeah. And, um, a fantastic job.

That's an interesting story being an accountant at a retail store in the wine country. Uh, that's peak performance, uh, for sure. So, Wally, if you were going to share sort of advice to young people who are. Looking at the world today about peak performance and achieving goals and keeping your eye on the prize and never giving up all those types of things, what are some of the things that you would say?

Oh, well, um, I think it's important, in least in, in my experience, was to seek out a mentor or seek out mentors, uh, people that will, uh, take you under their wing and, uh, and share their success and their failures with you. So you can benefit from that. I think that's extremely important. Um, uh, it worked for me, um, and, and I, I always felt that it's important that whatever you do, give them more than they pay for whatever you're asked to do, give more.

And I think with those, and with the good advice and good luck, you can be so tough. That's, that's really true, isn't it? Um. Who was your, when you think back on, you must have had a number of really important mentors along the way. Was there one that stood out or there a series of them at different times?

Well, I think I, I mentioned this Ben Nutter, who was the port director when I took over as, as, and I was his assistant. I, I started out as a public relations director. Um, and he brought me in and he was. He, he'd been a, a chief engineer in Hawaii, built the airport over there. I mean, he was tremendously, uh, successful and experienced person.

And I didn't have any of those, uh, any of that background. Uh, and he, he made me aware of it, taught me how to teach myself with his guidance. And so that must have a very close relationship. Um. How does it, so how does somebody go about when they identify someone they feel that would be a great mentor for them?

Do you think that just happens naturally? Or is it something where you really have to seek it out and almost sell yourself to that mentor? How do you go about doing that? No, I think it takes two to dance, but, um, you've gotta be a big part of it yourself. You've gotta, you've gotta say on, you gotta figure out who can really help me?

Who and how can I get them to help me? How can I make them want to help me? And, and, uh, and then establish that relationship. So it's incumbent on, on, on you to find that mentor and be able to convince them to be the mentor. Yep. So I wanna go back to the Potomac, um, and talk about what does it take to keep the Potomac running today?

Oh, it's, it is, you know, as I pointed out, the thing that makes it. Distinct is its operating vessel, but it really costs a lot of money to operate that ship. Um, so the Potomac Association, and I've been on the, I helped form the board originally and, and then left when we were out of the, out of the country.

But then came back on the board when we came back into the United States. Um, the, the Potomac Board has to, has, has to, has to raise that money and, and we do it by operations, selling, uh, charters, people charter the ship for special events. We provide, uh, docents as part of that so that they're not just on a fun party boat, but they have the opportunity to learn the history of the show.

And what it all, and what it all has meant to, uh, in terms of FDR and what was those contributions during World War II and the, and the Great Depression? Um, so, um, we do the charters and then, and then, uh, we actually have cruises where people can buy individual tickets. And so those activities pay for a big part of the responsibilities of, of the obligations of, of maintaining it, but not everything.

Because, uh, we can pretty much cover our operating day-to-day cost from operating revenues. Every 30 months, we have to take the ship out of the water that is required by the Coast Guard and do a completely a, a, a re-haul on the ship. And, uh, that can cost. If it's we're lucky, $150,000 can be $250,000. And so every 30 months we've got that 150, $250,000 ticket we've gotta come up with to keep going.

And so we, we have other obligations to, to, uh, keep going. We have a floating dock that, uh, takes, uh, at Jacqueline Square that needs, needs repair. So there was some capital costs that are, that are heavy burdens that we can only raise by going to donors, um, not just people enjoying the ship and taking a ticket or chartering.

People that will give money. Uh, we're very active in that. We need to be more active. And so we do need financial support from people that wanna preserve this ship or people that, uh, wanna support FDR and everything he stands for. Yeah. And now more than ever, it's super important. The world is, um, it's important to remember what the new deal was.

Why that was important to the history of the United States and everything else that you mentioned. Who, if anyone comes to mind, who have been some of the major donors to the USS Potomac in the past that should be recognized? Well, there's a maximum navigation company. They have two members on our board.

They were original sponsors. They provided, uh, engineering expertise. They just supported it from day one. Probably. No, no, no single company has done as much as medicine for as long. Um, we've got a couple of foundations that have provided funds. The Warm Springs Foundation, which is the foundation connection with Roosevelt's home in Georgia.

Um, we've got, um. A couple of other foundations that I've supported, which I'm individuals, have, um, made contributions. We don't have any major, uh, corporate sponsor at this point who's, who's kind of taken a lead position. Isn't it funny that here we are in San Francisco. Uh, and I'm curious what your thoughts are about that.

We have Salesforce, certainly Oracle at one point in time, uh, had a major presence here. We have now have open ai, we have Apple, we have Google, we have all of these tech companies just to name a few. But there are a number of companies that could easily take an interest in preserving the Potomac. I'm curious why you think that hasn't happened yet.

Because I do think it's a, yet I, I, I, I think it, it, it's our failure. I think we need to do a better job of selling this story. I think, um, when we were restoring the ship, everybody was very excited. Of course, it's something you almost couldn't happen. You know, how do we make it happen? And people were excited to make it happen.

Now that it's happened and it's there cruising every day and for, for years and years and years, it's become more routine. So I think it's, it, it's lost a certain degree of focus. Um, that, uh, we need to bring back to some of these corporations that probably don't even know we exist. Uh, so that, that, that's incumbent on us to work on that.

And there's also, there's a, I mean, FDR never met the greater democratic presidents. There's a, there's a lot of Democrats in, in this Bay area, some of the most important Democrats in, in, in, in the United States are, are right here. And I think they could take a, a greater interest in supporting his ship. Uh, but again, I think that's incumbent on us to entice them to do it.

Yeah. You think the governor would be interested and, and others? Um, so if you were going to say to, let's just say, I don't know, Tim, Tim Cook at Apple, Tim, why should you support the Potomac? What would you say? Well, I think it, it, it, it, it represents one of the most important eras of American history. Uh, the, the years of World War ii, the Great Depression were, were one of the most remarkable part of our history, and this ship is, is fundamental to that.

That's when it was most active, when FDR was on it, making decisions that dealt with all of those issues. And we bring that history alive and, uh, and we represent a, a point of history that, that we ought to continue. For our, for our younger people and others coming up, I kind of, I kind of forget because, um, the people that are b that are born today, um, they're more distant from World War II than I was from the Civil War.

So, um, when I was born. So we're a long distance, uh, in history to the current generation and, and, and we, and they will, and, and we bring the opportunity to connect them with us. Yeah. That's, that's a tremendous opportunity. Yeah. I think about like, people that I really admire, Eric Schmidt, the ex CEO of Google.

Uh, there's so many people that could take an interest in the Potomac and there could be so much that could be done with the ship to preserve that history. Um, it's so important and, um, uh, the fundraising side of it, that's a tough one. Um, and after looking at it for a long time, you, you realize. Always have to get out there and, and let people know why, why they have to support it and what they can do to make that happen.

Um, but I think a big thanks to you for enduring that. Um, and I know it was a passion, right? So that's the interesting thing about why I wanted you to be on the show because the pathway to peak performance is up, is all driven through a passion for doing something that's important to you. That's what gave you the drive, and I think that grew for you over time.

Um, today you must derive immense joy from it and also at times some frustration. What's the final thought on the USS Potomac? We've gotta have a long-term plan, which includes. Stronger financial support. Um, we day, we, we currently, um, year by year are we gonna get through the crisis, particularly when we come to these, uh, these requirements to, uh, to go to dry dock.

So, um, we need a longer term stable financial plan so that we can, uh, put together some programs, add to our history and, uh, into the activities that we bring to the public. Well, maybe we should have a, a party and invite, um. Johnny Ives and Sam Altman and Eric Schmidt and Tim Cook, and the list goes on. I mean, we get Larry Ellison to, to come on the Potomac and, and have a a, a party.

Uh, and there are many other people who are major. Major business people in, um, in the Bay Area. Yeah. But I think you're asking, you're saying, Hey, we need more corporate sponsors, right. Uh, to make it happen. And the Potomac would benefit so greatly. Can you imagine what could happen with that? How, like you said, it's the one point on the, on the West Coast.

That represents this. Um, it's one sort of thing that we have and when we think about what's left in the Bay Area after the shutdown of all of the bases and all, and everything there, maybe there's the Jeremiah O'Brien, but there's not a lot of stuff that's really that, all that, um, well certainly not as significant as the, as the Potomac.

Well, Wally, thanks a million for coming in. Um. It seems like forever since I've seen you.

Well, thank you very much. I really appreciate the opportunity and I love talking about the Potomac. It was great. Thank you. Thank you. Hey, thanks everyone for watching the show. Please remember to like, comment, and subscribe. It really helps us out here at the channel and share the video with someone who might be interested in supporting the charity that our guest, uh, mentioned in the episode.

Thanks again. We'll see you soon.

 He used that ship to meet with Churchill for the first time in secrecy up, um, in newfound. The secret service guy was dressed up as Roosevelt with his cigarette and waving in his hat, and people thought that was Roosevelt, or Roosevelt was on another ship. The Potomac somehow ended up at Pier 26 at the Port of San Francisco, along with another ship, and they were both carrying the flags of the Triple Children's Society of America.

The only problem was, was that other ship. It had 20 tons of Columbian marijuana on it. If you were going to share advice to young people about peak performance, seek out a mentor or seek out mentors, uh, people that will, uh, take you under their wing and, uh, and share their success and their failures with you.

So you can benefit from that. I think that's extremely important. In this episode of the Pathway to Peak Performance, we hear Sage advice from Wally Abernathy, from Vanderbilt, to saving the USS Potomac and all the things that he's done in his career. This is one to watch. Welcome to the show, Wally Abernathy.

We're gonna talk about all sorts of things today that are gonna be super interesting and fun. Going all the way back from your childhood all the way through your career. And then we're also gonna talk about the USS Potomac, which is gonna be very interesting how you actually achieve peak performance to restore a vessel that's so important to the history of the United States of America.

So welcome to the show, but before we get started, one thing I wanna say to you is that, as you know on this podcast, which is the pathway to peak performance, all of the proceeds from the show. The views that you know, YouTube pays us. Go to the charity of your choice. Now I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that your charity is probably gonna be the USS Potomac Association.

I think you've got that right. All right, fantastic. Great to have you here. So let's talk about your, you know, origin story. Where did you start? Well, I started in, uh, 1936 on July one, on a very hot day. I understand. I don't recall, but, uh, that's where I started and I've been going ever since. Alright. And you started in, in Louisville, Kentucky.

And you have to be born there to say it properly. It's not Louisville. It's Louisville. Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky. Louisville, Kentucky. So if you see it that way, and they'll let you in. I guess I've been around you long enough to know how to say it. So from there, you, you grow up, you chose Vanderbilt University.

How did that all happen? Well, I, I was, uh, I went to a military school, uh, boarding school for, uh, four years for high school, and that was very, very disciplined. Um, and there were a lot of. People from that boarding school that, uh, that went on down to Vanderbilt, which was in Nashville, which was the next state down in Tennessee.

So it was a popular destination, and in those days I was able to get in somehow and I was able to stay in somehow victory. All right. And then from there, what's next? When I, when I got out, I was, uh, I, I went through ROTC in at Vanderbilt, and as, as, as part of that, you had to enter into the military service.

And so I had choice of six months or two years, and I ended up with a two year assignment. And so. That assignment sent me from Nashville, Tennessee to Fort Ard, California to be at, uh, at the Infantry, infantry base there. So, uh, in 1959 I went to Fort Ard and it was, uh, discouraging because when I got there, they told me, oh, Lieutenant, we're, we're very sorry, but.

We don't have any places for you to live on the base. We're gonna have to give you a housing allowance and you're gonna have to live in Carmel for two years. Then it was the best two years of my life. And then when I started in the military, they had me out, uh, infantry with the troops out on, uh, on the firing line, learning how to do the artery.

And then I got a call with, I like to serve on the general, general staff and be in charge of putting out the post newspaper. So I lived for two years in Carmel with the civilian job almost, of doing the post newspaper. And it was the best of my life. I wish I was still doing it. Yeah. That would not be, uh, such a bad assignment.

Right? Pretty good. Yeah. Who knew? Yeah. Alright, so you get outta the army and then what's next from there? Well, then I, uh, I, I'd had this experience at, uh, at, in the military almost having a civilian job. We put out the post newspaper, I wrote the speeches for the general, we did press releases, so we had kind of an, an advertising type back, uh, background.

And we actually had, as part of our department, a radio show every morning for the post. And that was so, so we, we picked up some civilian skills and so when I got out, I, uh, went into advertising, uh, working for Standard Oil for a very short period of time, and then eventually moved over to Oakland and working for the Chamber of Commerce, uh, in Oakland doing promotion work.

Uh, and did that until I went to the Port of Oakland. And you have pretty interesting story at the Port of Oakland. I mean, let's talk about that. Well, uh, when I got to the Port of Oakland, it was, uh, a modest ized port. Most of the action, uh, trend, uh, maritime activity was in San Francisco at the time. Uh, but we started developing for containerization, which was just starting to happen.

And, uh, we started building facilities. And, uh, when I first went there, we might have had about 10, 15% of the cargo that came under the Golden Gate Bridge. And, uh, today it's probably 95% of a much bigger volume. So it's one of the major ports in the, in the country. I was fortunate to be there for 25 years and 23 of those years I was either the port director or the deputy.

Yeah, you, you have accomplished a lot at the Port of Oakland. I mean, that's a huge expansion. The port Port includes the airport too, and there's about 19 miles of real estate within the port's domain. So it's a big operation. So for a young guy like me, it was a good place to learn and and to grow with that port.

So if you were to think back. What was your path to peak performance when you got there? Did you feel like you had it all figured out or did you feel like you had a lot to learn? You were trying to, you were scrambling all the time. What was, what was going on in your mind in those days? Well, I, I knew, I didn't know at all 'cause I was, I was a real young guy, but the part director at that time, a fellow named Ben Nutter.

Uh, who was a legend in, in the, in the port business around the world, and was one of the founders of the whole containerization movement. He had a lot to do with making it happen. Uh, took me under my wing and so I really had a good wing man to, uh, to learn. And he gave me a lot of, of, uh, experience and he gave me a lot of flexibility and a lot of latitude.

And so eventually when he retired, um, they asked me to continue in his step footsteps. So, uh, I, I really had a great mentor and that was so important and to, uh, to learn from him, which I did and I always appreciate. And on the West coast, really, the two largest ports really are gonna be Long Beach and Oakland, right?

Well, not really. The, uh, as it, as it developed, Oakland was one of the first to container rise Oakland and, and, and cl. With that massive civilization down there in Southern California, that tends to attract the ships in there first because to serve that population base. So the ships that are coming in, typically from, from the Pacific, uh, from from the far east.

We'll tend to go into LA first bringing in imports, and then the ships tend to usually come up to the coast and go to Oakland for the outbound cargo, inbound and outbound, but a lot of outbound. So we're a lot of export activities from Oakland import activities into LA and import is a bigger activity than exports.

Yep. So I've seen some pictures of you with, uh, Jimmy Carter. Richard Nixon, I mean, like you, you had a lot of people that arrived. What, what was the story behind the Jimmy Carter picture? I'm just curious. Uh uh, well, Jimmy Carter, um, was, was uh, running for Reelections at that time and he made a visit to the Port of Oakland.

And, and so when that happened, uh, the Secret Service and the others just take over your operation. They kind of run it for a few days there. And so he was a wonderful guy to talk to and he wanted to be. Didn't wanna be. We first withhold we'd take him out a, a, a yacht and show him the port. He wanted to see the port, but he wanted to be on a working man's boat, so he wanted to be on the fireboat.

So. I was waiting in the Fireboat and when he landed, um, at the Oakland Airport and then came out to get on the boat, first thing, he was such a charming guy. He got first thing, oh, he said, I've heard so much about you. Well, I know he hadn't heard anything about me but it, for a young kid it would awful ice to hear something like that.

And so he had his wife with him and she was charming to, and so we then did a tour on this fire boat. Going along and I'm explaining to him what the ship is and that ship. And as the port director, you don't really know the ships are changing every hour. You can't keep up with, but I knew what was, I had a briefing of what was happening and um, I was telling him.

And then we went to an area that had a big factory and I said, uh, Mr. President, that's, that's part of the part, but it's really not maritime. It's, it's actually a dog. They make dog food there. And he looked and he says, boy, how do they make dog food? I said, Mr. President, I know a little bit about the pork business, but I know anything about the dog food business.

He said, probably just as well. Probably just as well. But he, he, he was put you at ease. Told stories. He started, oh, I saw this movie. You ought to see this movie. See, tell him what Wally about this movie, and go, oh my god. And then he was gone and never saw him again. Of course, but, but, uh, but he, he, he was, he was charming guy and a real damn Darth.

Ah, that's super. You had an interesting, uh, interaction with Al Davis, the owner of the Oakland Raiders. I didn't know you knew that one. Yeah. Tell me about the, the, uh, Al Davis story. Well, Al Davis. Al Davis, um. Had had two properties, uh, two activities on Port of Oakland property. One of them, he had his headquarters building in his, which was across from the Coliseum on property that he bought from the Port of Oakland.

And his next door lot was owned by the Port of Oakland. There was a practice field it, so when they weren't. In actual season at the Coliseum they had in the back area of the Oakland Airport, they had a practice field that they used for training and they kept active at it all the time. And so, um, part of that is he only paid a dollar.

We only charged him a dollar for that property, for the practice fields. So he. Uh, that lease. Because of that, it said we could, when he wasn't using it, we could use it for other purposes, like for recreational purposes, for, for the, for the kids of the community and that sort of thing. So, along came another league that was being set up at the time and that, uh, that didn't happen, but they were gonna set up another league that we competitive.

And, um, the, the league wanted to use our practice field when it wasn't being used by the Raiders. So I said, well, you could do that. We'll let you use it. Well, Al Davis came down on me like a load of Brooks Bricks. There's no way, no matter what the lease says, was he gonna let another football team use his practice field.

So we ended up in court and I ended up, uh, before the Judge Davis' attorneys were asking me a number of questions about my knowledge of football, whether those two activities could be compatible. And I said, well, they obviously, they could be this. And then, uh, they had, uh, Al Davis on, and they, um, had previously asked him, they said, Mr.

Davis, I see you have a ring on your thing. What, what is it? What's a Super Bowl? He said, I see you have another one. Oh, that's Super Bowl. You. Oh, you have another one? That's another Super Bowl. And then when I got on, he said, Mr. Abernathy, how many Super Bowl rings do you have? At which point Al Davis won the lawsuit?

Uh, Al Davis won the lawsuit. That's, uh, what a story. Um, so right about that time, was it before or after all of that, that the Potomac comes along in your life? Uh, it was after, um, the Potomac happened in, uh, 1981. We bought it and it was, uh, an interesting purchase. Right. Tell me the full story. Well, the Potomac, you know, it was, um.

It, it, it was amazing. It's just amazing history. Uh, it was, uh, started out as a rum runner, rum chaser and ended up as a, a drug boat. Uh, it went from being law enforcement to be enforced by the law. And, um, it was a Coast Guard cutter that was, that was built as a series of cutters to defend the coastline against.

People bringing in illegal alcohol during prohibition. And that was a, that was a big business. There was like, uh, like 200 ships out there beyond the 12 mile limit, bringing in liquor into the United States when liquor was illegal. And so the Potomac was one of a series of ships that were designed to stop that.

Um, but it, and it was built as a, as a submarine chaser. It had, it was very, very mobile, very uh, very good at that maneuverability. Um, and, and, and the Potomac, when it came along, prohibition was over, but there, it went out and did parole for about a year because, uh, there were still people trying to bring liquor in and not pay tax on it.

Uh, so, uh, but then, uh, president Roosevelt, who, uh, had had, uh, uh, been the president, uh, at a 1930, uh, six. Had decided he wanted another presidential yacht because the one that he used was the Sequoia, which was a wooden hall, and he was paralyzed and was very fearful of being on a ship that might be exposed to fire.

Mm-hmm. And the, and the Potomac was, was, uh, then called the Electra Coast Guard Cutter. He Roosevelt picked that out and he transferred it to the Navy. They rebuilt it to make it a presidential yacht. And spent $50,000 as I recall doing that. And part of that was to put a phony smoke stock on it with an elevator so that FDR, 'cause he changed levels, could move himself up by hand in that, um, in that smoke stock, which would just open up.

And then there was the president of the United States. And so, uh, he then converted it to the Potomac, became his presidential yacht in 1936. Used it all the time. He was just literally lived on it. We recently did a survey of, uh, the log of the ship. And, uh, for the time that he was there, he, I think he had 75 separate trips and I think only one or two were day trips.

The rest of 'em were overnight weekends, many, many days, uh, down in Texas, fishing up in, uh, up the Hudson River. He was all over on that ship and, and he did lots of big important history points on that. He made his decision to run a third time on that ship and did the strategy on that ship. He used that ship to meet with Churchill for the first time in secrecy of, um, in newfound, by the way, I'm sorry to interrupt you on that, but I just wanted to ask you about it.

Did he had like a dummy of himself, right? He didn't actually use the ship, he just made it appear that he was on the ship and then took another vessel to meet Churchill. Is that how it works? No, not well, partly right. But what he did, he actually announced that he was going on a New England fishing trip on the Potomac and it was announced that was his plan.

So he got on the Potomac in, in, in, uh, in Massachusetts and toured around and waved at people and did all that sort of thing. And then in the middle of the night, he moved over to, um, uh, another Navy ship that then moved him in secret to, up into Newfoundland, where he then met with Churchill for their, uh, their, their meeting, which, uh.

You've developed the Atlantic Conference. Um, then while he was on that, the Secret Service guy was dressed up as Roosevelt with his cigarette and waving in his hat, and people thought that was Roosevelt or Roosevelt was on another ship. And then when the conference was over, he got back on the Potomac, came back to New England and had a press conference telling the world.

What had just been happened. So he told the world that he was on a fishing trip or he told the world, he told the world really right. That he had met with Churchill and he waited for a while because he wanted to make sure Churchill got safely back to England without, uh, the German U-boats knowing that he'd been over here.

Right. Yeah. So the Potomac was a decoy for that. And he used it. Another time He used it. He went to a, he went to a meeting, um, in, uh, 19. 43, I think it was for, uh, the Tehran Conference with Churchill again. And in this, this case was stalled. And, uh, he moved in secret from, uh, from the White House on the Potomac to Chesapeake Bay where he transferred to another ship and moved in secret again to this, for that meeting.

So, lots of history. Lots of history. Um, and then where does the Potomac go after that? There's a lot of history here with FDR. Then there's a lot of history just that keeps going with the Potomac. So what's the next stop for the Potomac? Well, uh, Roosevelt died in 1945, and that was the end of the Potomac.

Well, Truman used it a few times. One of the times Truman used it actually was, and he did some of the planning for the dropping of the bomb on Hiroshima a while out in the Potomac. But, uh, RO after Roosevelt died. The Potomac then reverted back from the Navy to the Coast Guard, and then the next year they, the government sold it to the, to the, uh, state of Maryland, which became a yacht for the, for the governor.

And they had it for about 14 years, as I recall. And it was used extensively for ceremonial purposes for the governor. They, the Maryland paid $10, so they got a pretty good deal. They had more that, more fuel on it than that. But, uh, it, it had an accident there and then the government of Maryland decided to get rid of it, and that's kinda started its downfall.

Somebody bought. For about 65,000 I think. And they moved it down to the Caribbean. They were gonna use it as a ferry back and forth between the islands there and exhibit. Um, then somebody else bought it. They were gonna move it around through the canal up to a world's fair in Seattle. It was being planned at the time.

Um, the, the Austin engine, they had trouble. They never, they never made the world's fair. Um, they timely got through the canal. They lost their crew there and it just became sort of continuing to deteriorate, um, on the on, but now on the West Coast. So it had gotten around. That's how it got up to our, to our coast.

And um, Elvis Presley came along and bought it, uh, from those people in 1964 and he paid $55,000, if I'm remembering correctly. And, um, he wanted to save it because of his fondness for Roosevelt. His first plan was to give it to the March of Dimes, which had been Roosevelt's. Basic charity for, for infantile paralysis.

Um, and, uh, they were very excited about it until they spent a couple days looking at it and realized they had more of a liability than an asset just to maintain it. So they said, thank you Elvis, but no thanks. And then, uh, Elvis had a meeting with Danny Thomas, which was filmed, and it was a big deal.

Colonel Parker, or his, his agent, um, didn't orchestrate it all. Um, at that point Elvis gave it to Danny Thomas and St. Jude's Hospital in Memphis, and they took it and it was great, and they were gonna move it back to Memphis and make it a tourist attraction. But then after a little investigation, they said, boom.

And go, maybe this isn't such a smart thing to do, 'cause it's got more cost than, than, uh, money associated with it. And so then Elvis uh, went auction and sold it to another party. And at that point, um, he disappeared. The ship was around. Eventually we had different owners. We kinda lost control. It continued to get into worse and worse shape.

It finally ended up, uh, in Stockton, I think in 1979. Uh, and then in 1980 the Potomac somehow ended up at Pier 26 at the Port of San Francisco, along with another ship, and they were both carrying the flags of the Triple Children's Society of America. The only problem was, is that other ship. Had 20 tons of and marijuana on it.

And it was the biggest, uh, uh, uh, smuggling of marijuana in at that point in time in the United States history. Uh, and, uh, the Feds were aware of that. And so at 19 80 80, uh, the Fed swooped down on it. They arrested everybody that was involved. Uh, and they took the, the, uh, the ship with the marijuana that Potoma didn't have any, but it had that same flag on it.

So they arrested the Potomac and in, in nautical law, you can arrest a ship, like you arrest a person. So the government had control of the Potomac. They took it over to Treasure Island, and after, uh, uh, several months. It managed to sink. It had Treasure Island and it had been underneath the water were some pilings that were still, were submerged.

That pierced the halt. So, uh, in March of, uh, in 19 80, 19 81, I guess it was, there was a big picture on the front page of the Chronicle and newspapers all over the country of this once proud yacht. The presidential yacht now at really at its lowest point, it was underwater. Uh, with, you could see the piling sticking through it, and that's what the Potomac had had come to.

And then, uh, the government auctioned it off, uh, in, uh, in April, uh, that year. That auction, I happened to be a portrait at the time and it was happening just below my window and, um, in my office. And which was you on the Oakland asteroid? A Jack London Square. So I looked out and I, I've never seen such a swarm of, of interest.

I mean, there was news media were all over, I mean, all kinds of cameras and news people. There were tremendous human interest in this selling of this once proud yacht. And um, so I was fascinated as a kid. I've been really fond of Roosevelt to like that southern song, you know, Mr. Roosevelt's gonna save us all.

And he was be one of our heroes. So I was interested in, in Roosevelt and, and in the, in the project. And, uh, at the time, the director of customs knocked on my door and said, uh, we're auctioning this off. Would you like to put in an opening bid? I an opening bid? What's the idea? So we kind of talked around and said, well, maybe 15,000.

So I said, well, gimme 30 minutes. Gimme an hour to look into this. So the, you can see there wasn't a lot of depth of that. I called the port attorney, I said, can I buy it? And he said, yep. And then I called the port engineer and I said, can I buy it? And he said, yeah, but don't. And, uh, so then the auction proceeded.

I went down and they said opening bid. And I raised the thing for 15,000 and my arm hadn't even gotten up, but he said sold. So we had, we had acquired it, at which point the federal guys were so, so, so, so helpful. They, they took the pumps off 'cause they were paying for the pumps that were keeping the vessel from sinking.

So we had to re had to re-rent the pumps to keep it from sale. And so then we had a project. Or we had either that or a disaster, one or the other, and that, that, that kind of got us into it, that's a heck of a situation to be in. All of a sudden, what happens next? Well, then we had to realize that, uh, this thing has been deteriorating.

Nobody has been able to restore this, and it's a huge activity. And anybody who really knows anything about. Maritime and, and, uh, engineering knows that, that that's a major, major project. So, uh, we sat down and the port then was the owner of the ship and we laid out some objectives for what if we were gonna restore it, why were we gonna restore and how are we gonna restore and for what, you know, for what purpose?

And we decided we really didn't wanna just restore it as to be another kind of boat in a bathtub tied to a wharf. We want it to be. An operating vessel just like it had been when FDR had it as his presidential yacht. Um, and so then we reached out to the community to see who would support it, because it's not the Port of Oakland's job to do this.

It's a community job. It's a broader job. We hoped the Port of Oakland would step back if we got it started, but we did have the engineering horsepower and the management horsepower to, uh, to manage that kind of project. So, uh, we brought some top people in. We got great support. The maritime community came in a big way.

American President Wine, their CEO became a, had a major supporter. Uh, we had the fellow who had been the president of Kaiser engineer, huge engineering company, had just retired, volunteered his time. He worked with us almost for four or five years. We gave him a little office in one our, so he could bring that engineering talent.

So we had great volunteers. Uh, Jimmy Roosevelt, the Roosevelt family got involved. Uh, he was charming guy Jimmy told me, uh, at that point here, FDR was our greatest president and he, there was no monument to him at that point in time. And Jimmy said there's nothing his father would appreciate more than the restoration of that ship.

'cause he had had so many wonderful hours on it. He loved his time on it and he'd been so productive on that ship. And so he said the family would support it a hundred percent. So with that kind of support behind it and with the sort of project management capabilities of the port and our engineering staff and our total, total, total activities, we launched the project and uh, after a lot of work we brought in, uh, two and a half million that we raised and we got the two and a half million dollar grant.

From the federal government through the support of President Ronald Reagan, uh, we were able to then raise the money to bring the project alive and then open back in 1995, I think it was. Wow. Is this 45 years later? I guess it is, yeah. 45 years. And you're still with it? That's a pretty big commitment. Well, I've spent a lot of time, I really, I really love the ship, I love the project.

Uh, I dunno if I've mentioned this stuff, but it, it is the oldest Navy ship that's decommissioned, but oldest navy ship in daily operation in the whole world. Um, and it's got and, and, and, and, and Roosevelt so spent so much time on there. I mean, we had the king and the queen on there. We had the Queen of the Netherlands.

We had Prince Crown, princess Martha of Norway. We had every member of the cabinet was on it. Uh. It just one dignitary after another. It was, he did so much thinking on that boat. He did the planning, he did planning for, uh, Lendlease. That was the program that the US then made available money to, to Great Britain and Russia to fight the, the, the Germans and, and the Italians.

So we were prohibited at that point in time from giving away money or supporting them. So Roosevelt came up with a concept. What we'll do is we'll lend them things and they'll pay back when they're able to, which was, you know, amazing. And so that, that, that basically helped start us winning the war, uh, and saved England from the, the Nazi invasion.

And he and he, he signed the appropriation, the first appropriation. For that Land Leach was signed on the Potomac on one of his fishing trips. So it's just one history thing after another. Yeah. I mean, you could go on for hours and hours. Right, right. So when you think back on that, there had to have been moments where you thought to yourself, what did I get myself into?

Is that an accurate statement? Well, I guess I wasn't, uh, smart of that to, to think about that. I remember they, they called it Wally's Folly. For a long, long time is that they would, I was pursuing this kind of crazy thing because I was interested in it and I was a port director so I could manage resources, but, but there the, there was this enthusiasm for all, everybody was very interested in seeing this thing happen.

There was a time when the, you know, public opinion really turned and everybody was like, wow, the Potomac is a huge national treasure that's right here in the Bay Area, and how lucky are we to have this? That must have felt pretty good. Yeah, it did. Where, when, uh, you know, if you, if you look at so many of the historical monuments and recognitions, most of it's on the East coast.

You know, we don't have that, that, that connection with history that the east coast of the United States has. And Roosevelt, they've got the n as I say, when we started the project, there was no monument. But, um, you've got the National monument now in Washington. You've got the, uh, his presidential library at Hyde Park.

You've got Campo the summer home, you've got Warm Springs where he died and where he, he recovered from polio there for many years. And then there's us. So we've got all this history there and we're the only point of it, uh, on the West Coast. And, and one of the purposes of our project was to bring that history to the West Coast.

People understandably say, well, you know, why is this here? And well, it's a long story as I just explained how it's here, but it, but it is here and it is restored here. And, uh, we think it brings, uh, an important part of history to our West Coast neighbors. Yeah. Well there was definitely a pathway to peak performance to make that happen.

Uh, a lot of work and a lot of work goes into it today, and it's amazing to see how much you've continued to be, I mean, I have to say. If you take a look at that, it's 45 years of continuous effort to make sure something is preserved. That's a tremendous like accomplishment. So thank you. Um, we're gonna move past the Potomac now, um, and talk about some other things.

So you retire from the port and all of a sudden you get a company, you get a call from a company that wants you to move to England, uh, and do something because of your experience with aviation. Work on some aviation related stuff, and then the next thing you know, you're building an airport in the Caribbean.

Right? Right. Let's talk about that. Well, I, when I retired from the port, I did some consulting for a while. Um, and I ended up, uh, doing a lot of work for Bechtel, the engineering company, actually probably the largest private, private engineering company in the world. Um, tremendous outreach and tremendous talents.

Um, I ended up, uh, involved in some of their financial projects and, uh, and for a while headed their aviation effort worldwide. And when I was doing that, uh, we were living in, we, we, uh, we lived in England for a couple of years while I was in that had that responsibility. But at Bechtel I did, uh, all kinds of, uh, interesting projects.

We worked on a project in the Panama Canal to connect the two ports with a railroad. Uh, and, um, had some stiff competition from the Chinese, which, uh, didn't follow all the rules that we had to follow in terms of bidding public contracts. I did work in Brazil. We did a major project that I presented to the president of Brazil.

Uh, we did a project, uh, worked on a project, uh, uh, in the, in the Middle East where we were going to try to bring water from Turkey across Israel. Uh. Into the Middle East, um, uh, and, uh, and worked with the Israeli government and others on, on that project. So I had wonderful experiences and got to deal on, uh, big projects, uh, in exciting times.

Uh, after I retired from Tel Aviation, they don't necessarily let you go. They said, ask if I would like to go down in, uh, in the Caribbean. Dutch Island, um, just to, um, get started closing a franchise to take over the airport for 25 years and build a new terminal. And if I'd set it up and spent about a year there, uh, they would appreciate it.

And so I went down and seven, seven years later I'd crawl out. And we did get the airport built, the terminal built, and it's been successful ever since. But that was a lot of fun. And that's when I then came back and, and retired. Became the, uh, the accountant at my wife's, uh, retail store. Yeah. And, um, a fantastic job.

That's an interesting story being an accountant at a retail store in the wine country. Uh, that's peak performance, uh, for sure. So, Wally, if you were going to share sort of advice to young people who are. Looking at the world today about peak performance and achieving goals and keeping your eye on the prize and never giving up all those types of things, what are some of the things that you would say?

Oh, well, um, I think it's important, in least in, in my experience, was to seek out a mentor or seek out mentors, uh, people that will, uh, take you under their wing and, uh, and share their success and their failures with you. So you can benefit from that. I think that's extremely important. Um, uh, it worked for me, um, and, and I, I always felt that it's important that whatever you do, give them more than they pay for whatever you're asked to do, give more.

And I think with those, and with the good advice and good luck, you can be so tough. That's, that's really true, isn't it? Um. Who was your, when you think back on, you must have had a number of really important mentors along the way. Was there one that stood out or there a series of them at different times?

Well, I think I, I mentioned this Ben Nutter, who was the port director when I took over as, as, and I was his assistant. I, I started out as a public relations director. Um, and he brought me in and he was. He, he'd been a, a chief engineer in Hawaii, built the airport over there. I mean, he was tremendously, uh, successful and experienced person.

And I didn't have any of those, uh, any of that background. Uh, and he, he made me aware of it, taught me how to teach myself with his guidance. And so that must have a very close relationship. Um. How does it, so how does somebody go about when they identify someone they feel that would be a great mentor for them?

Do you think that just happens naturally? Or is it something where you really have to seek it out and almost sell yourself to that mentor? How do you go about doing that? No, I think it takes two to dance, but, um, you've gotta be a big part of it yourself. You've gotta, you've gotta say on, you gotta figure out who can really help me?

Who and how can I get them to help me? How can I make them want to help me? And, and, uh, and then establish that relationship. So it's incumbent on, on, on you to find that mentor and be able to convince them to be the mentor. Yep. So I wanna go back to the Potomac, um, and talk about what does it take to keep the Potomac running today?

Oh, it's, it is, you know, as I pointed out, the thing that makes it. Distinct is its operating vessel, but it really costs a lot of money to operate that ship. Um, so the Potomac Association, and I've been on the, I helped form the board originally and, and then left when we were out of the, out of the country.

But then came back on the board when we came back into the United States. Um, the, the Potomac Board has to, has, has to, has to raise that money and, and we do it by operations, selling, uh, charters, people charter the ship for special events. We provide, uh, docents as part of that so that they're not just on a fun party boat, but they have the opportunity to learn the history of the show.

And what it all, and what it all has meant to, uh, in terms of FDR and what was those contributions during World War II and the, and the Great Depression? Um, so, um, we do the charters and then, and then, uh, we actually have cruises where people can buy individual tickets. And so those activities pay for a big part of the responsibilities of, of the obligations of, of maintaining it, but not everything.

Because, uh, we can pretty much cover our operating day-to-day cost from operating revenues. Every 30 months, we have to take the ship out of the water that is required by the Coast Guard and do a completely a, a, a re-haul on the ship. And, uh, that can cost. If it's we're lucky, $150,000 can be $250,000. And so every 30 months we've got that 150, $250,000 ticket we've gotta come up with to keep going.

And so we, we have other obligations to, to, uh, keep going. We have a floating dock that, uh, takes, uh, at Jacqueline Square that needs, needs repair. So there was some capital costs that are, that are heavy burdens that we can only raise by going to donors, um, not just people enjoying the ship and taking a ticket or chartering.

People that will give money. Uh, we're very active in that. We need to be more active. And so we do need financial support from people that wanna preserve this ship or people that, uh, wanna support FDR and everything he stands for. Yeah. And now more than ever, it's super important. The world is, um, it's important to remember what the new deal was.

Why that was important to the history of the United States and everything else that you mentioned. Who, if anyone comes to mind, who have been some of the major donors to the USS Potomac in the past that should be recognized? Well, there's a maximum navigation company. They have two members on our board.

They were original sponsors. They provided, uh, engineering expertise. They just supported it from day one. Probably. No, no, no single company has done as much as medicine for as long. Um, we've got a couple of foundations that have provided funds. The Warm Springs Foundation, which is the foundation connection with Roosevelt's home in Georgia.

Um, we've got, um. A couple of other foundations that I've supported, which I'm individuals, have, um, made contributions. We don't have any major, uh, corporate sponsor at this point who's, who's kind of taken a lead position. Isn't it funny that here we are in San Francisco. Uh, and I'm curious what your thoughts are about that.

We have Salesforce, certainly Oracle at one point in time, uh, had a major presence here. We have now have open ai, we have Apple, we have Google, we have all of these tech companies just to name a few. But there are a number of companies that could easily take an interest in preserving the Potomac. I'm curious why you think that hasn't happened yet.

Because I do think it's a, yet I, I, I, I think it, it, it's our failure. I think we need to do a better job of selling this story. I think, um, when we were restoring the ship, everybody was very excited. Of course, it's something you almost couldn't happen. You know, how do we make it happen? And people were excited to make it happen.

Now that it's happened and it's there cruising every day and for, for years and years and years, it's become more routine. So I think it's, it, it's lost a certain degree of focus. Um, that, uh, we need to bring back to some of these corporations that probably don't even know we exist. Uh, so that, that, that's incumbent on us to work on that.

And there's also, there's a, I mean, FDR never met the greater democratic presidents. There's a, there's a lot of Democrats in, in this Bay area, some of the most important Democrats in, in, in, in the United States are, are right here. And I think they could take a, a greater interest in supporting his ship. Uh, but again, I think that's incumbent on us to entice them to do it.

Yeah. You think the governor would be interested and, and others? Um, so if you were going to say to, let's just say, I don't know, Tim, Tim Cook at Apple, Tim, why should you support the Potomac? What would you say? Well, I think it, it, it, it, it represents one of the most important eras of American history. Uh, the, the years of World War ii, the Great Depression were, were one of the most remarkable part of our history, and this ship is, is fundamental to that.

That's when it was most active, when FDR was on it, making decisions that dealt with all of those issues. And we bring that history alive and, uh, and we represent a, a point of history that, that we ought to continue. For our, for our younger people and others coming up, I kind of, I kind of forget because, um, the people that are b that are born today, um, they're more distant from World War II than I was from the Civil War.

So, um, when I was born. So we're a long distance, uh, in history to the current generation and, and, and we, and they will, and, and we bring the opportunity to connect them with us. Yeah. That's, that's a tremendous opportunity. Yeah. I think about like, people that I really admire, Eric Schmidt, the ex CEO of Google.

Uh, there's so many people that could take an interest in the Potomac and there could be so much that could be done with the ship to preserve that history. Um, it's so important and, um, uh, the fundraising side of it, that's a tough one. Um, and after looking at it for a long time, you, you realize. Always have to get out there and, and let people know why, why they have to support it and what they can do to make that happen.

Um, but I think a big thanks to you for enduring that. Um, and I know it was a passion, right? So that's the interesting thing about why I wanted you to be on the show because the pathway to peak performance is up, is all driven through a passion for doing something that's important to you. That's what gave you the drive, and I think that grew for you over time.

Um, today you must derive immense joy from it and also at times some frustration. What's the final thought on the USS Potomac? We've gotta have a long-term plan, which includes. Stronger financial support. Um, we day, we, we currently, um, year by year are we gonna get through the crisis, particularly when we come to these, uh, these requirements to, uh, to go to dry dock.

So, um, we need a longer term stable financial plan so that we can, uh, put together some programs, add to our history and, uh, into the activities that we bring to the public. Well, maybe we should have a, a party and invite, um. Johnny Ives and Sam Altman and Eric Schmidt and Tim Cook, and the list goes on. I mean, we get Larry Ellison to, to come on the Potomac and, and have a a, a party.

Uh, and there are many other people who are major. Major business people in, um, in the Bay Area. Yeah. But I think you're asking, you're saying, Hey, we need more corporate sponsors, right. Uh, to make it happen. And the Potomac would benefit so greatly. Can you imagine what could happen with that? How, like you said, it's the one point on the, on the West Coast.

That represents this. Um, it's one sort of thing that we have and when we think about what's left in the Bay Area after the shutdown of all of the bases and all, and everything there, maybe there's the Jeremiah O'Brien, but there's not a lot of stuff that's really that, all that, um, well certainly not as significant as the, as the Potomac.

Well, Wally, thanks a million for coming in. Um. It seems like forever since I've seen you.

Well, thank you very much. I really appreciate the opportunity and I love talking about the Potomac. It was great. Thank you. Thank you. Hey, thanks everyone for watching the show. Please remember to like, comment, and subscribe. It really helps us out here at the channel and share the video with someone who might be interested in supporting the charity that our guest, uh, mentioned in the episode.

Thanks again. We'll see you soon.