As Nancy Gibbs, department head of acquisitions for Perkins Library, stood in the cold at President Barack Obama's inauguration Jan. 20, she had change on her mind.
Watching the events by the reflecting pool with her daughter-in-law and 2 million spectators, Gibbs reflected on the personal change this day brought for her son, Robert Gibbs, who had been named Obama's press secretary.
"It was great to be part of the inauguration events... to be amongst all those people standing on the mall knowing that the country had made such a tremendous change in the way that it looked at people and the way it addressed issues," Nancy Gibbs said. "All the mothers and the fathers knew when Barack was going to be inaugurated, and you could hear all the mommies and the daddies saying, 'OK, no more talking, no more fighting with your brothers and sisters, pay attention-this is an historic moment.'"
Nancy Gibbs, who is in her eighth year working at Duke, said her son was curious about politics at a very young age. She added that he began to show serious interest in communications work during his internships on Capitol Hill, which he held while attending North Carolina State University.
"I don't know that there are signs that one is going to be a press secretary, but we've always been interested in politics in our family, and when Robert was growing up I was very active in the League of Women Voters," Nancy Gibbs said. "So, when I had to do things for the League, I put my two children in the car and we did things as a group. So they came within the political environment early on in their upbringing."
Robert Gibbs began working with Obama in 2004 as communications director for his Senate bid before eventually becoming senior strategist for communications for Obama's presidential campaign.
Nancy Gibbs said that as his work on the campaign progressed, she envisioned that her son might eventually become press secretary. An Obama supporter herself, she was "heartily for" her son's involvement with Obama's campaign and now his administration.
Two days after the inauguration, Robert Gibbs held his first press conference as press secretary. Nancy Gibbs, who was at work at the time, watched it on the Internet. Though he is now in his second month as press secretary, Nancy Gibbs said it is still strange to see her son on television.
"I am very, very proud of him to have attained the job that he did," she said. "I thought he conducted himself very well [in his first press conference]. You don't get a lot of training for this job, and you certainly don't get any training for the questions that you're going to be asked every day."
Nancy Gibbs and her husband, Robert Gibbs, Trinity '52, still talk with their son at least once a week and communicate via e-mail-. Nancy Gibbs said her relationship with her son has not changed despite his new, high-profile job, and she expects their visits to remain the same, including watching March Madness basketball games and occasional brunches at the Washington Duke Inn.
While she grows accustomed to seeing her son in the spotlight, Nancy Gibbs said he is in a job that is everything she hoped a job would be for him.
"He is in the job that he loves to be in, and you know you have to enjoy your job to go to work every day," she said. "He is really enjoying what he is doing; he's in the right job for the right person."
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