The Perks of Business

This surely doesn't happen as much as it used to, but I got a reminder today how interesting it can be to work at Eastman Kodak.

Neil Montanus, a retired senior photographer from Kodak, called the newsroom to point out that he'd taken the official portrait of Gerald Ford that is running in many newspapers since the former president's death earlier this week.

Montanus and I had a nice chat today, and he forwarded some of the images taken by the official White House photographer of him doing the work. He wryly notes in an e-mail: "I looked different back then..."

Perhaps the most amazing detail is that Montanus inadvertently brought back a leaf of an ivy plant that was on a mantel in the Oval Office. He gave it to his wife, who got the leaf to sprout roots. Thirty years later, the plant still thrives. He sent along a more current picture, also below.