Making History Possible

Two CMU alumni contributed to ensuring a smooth Inauguration Day

“Don’t quit your day job” is common advice often said in jest, but for two Carnegie Mellon alumni — Brigadier General Robert Bowie, better known in CMU circles as just Bowie, and U.S. Senate staffer Vincent “Vince” Brown — the thought would never cross their minds. Both men work on Capitol Hill and were proud to help plan the 59th Presidential Inauguration on January 20, 2021.

Clearly, it was not just another average day at work for Bowie and Vince as they assisted the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies, which has been responsible for the planning and execution of these momentous occasions at the U.S. Capitol since 1901.

An Invisible Army

Because of security concerns, 2021’s Inauguration Day brought unprecedented challenges. The insurrection at the Capitol mere weeks before led to nearly half of the originally scheduled volunteers dropping out. That meant a huge shift in responsibilities for everyone involved, including a total reassignment of credentials for the remaining volunteers.

Vince Brown, who graduated from CMU’s Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences with an international relations and politics degree in 2013, currently works with Senator Amy Klobuchar on campaign finance reform.

Last fall, while working as counsel on the U.S. Senate Committee on Rules and Administration, Chairwoman Klobuchar, who was the lead Senate Democrat on the congressional planning committee for inaugural ceremonies, asked Vince to help organize volunteers for the inauguration. (As a field organizer with the Democratic Party of Georgia, he had experience leading large groups of volunteers.) For Inauguration Day, he was charged with both coordinating the logistics of more than 500 volunteers with escorting duties and managing the Command Center, a temporary communication hub set up in the middle of the Capitol for Inauguration Day.

He remembers the day as “hectic, yet organized” with some “pretty intense walkie-talkie” usage. At one point, after finalizing all of the escort logistics for 300 people, including former presidents, he says, “I think my brain melted.”

Thinking back on the day, Vince remembers feeling both inside and outside of the moment.

“You understand what you're doing. You understand the historic nature of it, to plan an inauguration, to be part of an inauguration during a pandemic ... I was definitely taking all that in,” he says. “It’s just something that you internalize. Then you're like, ‘All right, well, we just gotta get to swearing-in time, so let's just grind this out and do it.’”

Having worked around-the-clock before the big day, Vincent remembers the second half of the day being “kind of a blur.”

“Obviously, I was excited after I got done, but I missed some of the post-ceremony celebration at the Lincoln Memorial because, after I got back home, I lay down on the couch and fell straight to sleep.”

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