And now, we take a moment to remember a different kind of political insider: Howard Reds Arrington, who died last weekend. For 34 years, Arrington tackled presidential pluming dilemmas. In a 1995 interview with NPR, Arrington recalled one of his biggest jobs: boosting the water pressure for LBJ.</s>Mr. HOWARD ARRINGTON (Former White House Plumber): What we ended up doing was putting four pumps up in a false ceiling above his shower to increase the pressure up to about 100 to 300 pounds of running pressure, which on a normal home, the average shower would probably have 10 or 12 pounds of running pressure on it. Well, when President Nixon came into office, one of the first things he had me to do is to come up there to get rid of all of that stuff. He said he didn't see how anybody could stand all that pressure.</s>DEBBIE ELLIOTT, host: That was Howard Reds Arrington, the man who fixed the leaks and kept up the pressure for seven presidents. Arrington died of cancer last weekend at the age of 79.
For decades, Howard "Reds" Arrington served as the chief plumber at the White House. He died March 24 at age 79. A while back, he shared a story with NPR about President Johnson's water-pressure needs.