Inauguration of NPC President Thomas Burr defies blizzard, celebrates national parks, press freedom

Mocking the raging snow storm outside with quips, the National Press Club on Jan. 22 inaugurated Thomas Burr, Washington Correspndent for the Salt Lake Tribune as its 109th president.

“In D.C., when we see a snowflake, we call a Snow Emergency, we shut down the schools, the government, and everyone stocks up on toilet paper, milk and bread,” said Burr, a native of Salina, Utah. “In Utah, we call this … Friday.”

The ceremony was moved to Jan. 22 from Jan. 23 because the nation’s capital was almost completely closed down for the weekend. Even then, the storm was already underway as the formally clad members and guests gathered.

The lobby of the Club was decorated with magnificent photos of Utah. One was of Bryce Canyon National Park, named for Ebenezer Bryce, an ancient kin of the new Club president.

Elsewhere, lots of the celebrants donned Smokey Bear hats, reflecting Burr’s theme for the inaugural of “Our American Treasures,” featuring the nation’s national parks.

Jonathan Jarvis, director of the National Park Service, was the keynote speaker and also administered the Oath of Office. The traditional frosted Club cookies, the dessert after filet mignon, bore the likeness of the Park Service logo or one of Utah’s natural monuments.

Jarvis, too, had his quip, noting that some Park Service employees had called in on the job when it was 40 below zero “while Washington was paralyzed by one inch of snow” — something that had happened inside the Beltway only two days earlier.

Burr’s mother, Ann, and his brother and two sisters and spouses, all of whom live in the West, also attended.

“She has been my inspiration,” Burr said in tribute his mother. His father died last year.

President Obama and Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah sent letters of congratulations, and there were cameo appearances on the screen by Interior Secretary Sally Jewell, former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, Jr., and documentary filmmaker and Club member Ken Burns.

Huntsman said Burr had done something no other Utahan (residents of the state insist they're “Utahn”) had done — being elected president. It was an oblique, lighthearted reference to Huntsman’s own unsuccessful bid for president four years ago.

Also from the Club, past president Angela Greiling Keane of Bloomberg News presided, Lynn Sweet of the Chicago Sun-Times spoke, and immediate past president John Hughes of Bloomberg offered the toast.

Burr, who also has headed the Congressional Standing Committee of Correspondents and Regional Reporters Association during his 10 years in Washington, said in his address that the Club too often tried to recruit members by talking about its gym, bar and Friday night free tacos.

“But that’s not who we are. We need to explain that better,” he said.

Noting that Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian has been freed in Iran, Burr said: “The National Press Club will make sure that we continue our fight, day in and day out, for freedom of the press. It’s our duty. It’s our solemn responsibility. It’s why we are the National Press Club."