WASHINGTON — Taking note of his Chinese immigrant roots and calling him an outstanding public servant, President Barack Obama on Wednesday nominated former Washington Gov. Gary Locke as the secretary of commerce.
Locke was the nation’s first Chinese-American governor. Obama noted that Locke’s grandfather left China more than 100 years ago on a steamship bound for America, where he had no family. He worked as a houseboy for a family in exchange for English lessons. The family lived less than a mile from the governor’s mansion in Olympia, where Locke and his family later lived.
“It took our family 100 years to move that 1 mile, a journey possible only in America,” Locke told Obama in accepting the nomination. “My family’s story is America’s story.”
