Lawson murals to Trump, Bush
Incident with Palmer, Ivy League football told
David Lawson shows his framed plaque canvas artwork, measuring 24-by-26 inches, honoring patriotic landmarks and all U.S. presidents, with current President Donald J. Trump the centerpiece. Preparing to send Trump this plaque as he did a similar work sent to the White House in 2004 for then President George W. Bush, Lawson addressed Concord-Farragut Republican Club members about his plaques during a recent meeting in Knox County Sheriff’s Office West Precinct, Turkey Creek.
This Farragut-area resident actually got in trouble with golfing legend Arnold Palmer during
the final round of the 1970 PGA “major” in Tulsa, Oklahoma: angering Palmer — one of his boyhood heroes — on the 11th tee with the click of his camera.
Filming a golf feature at the same course, Southern Hills Country Club, in Tulsa where Lawson lived at the time “about three years later,” Palmer was introduced to Lawson by a man who thought the golfing legend might remember the “camera click” incident.
“I give him the brief story (about what happened in 1970), and he starts laughing ... and he said, ‘Dave, I’m so sorry. I bet that embarrassed you to death,’” Lawson recalled Palmer saying.
“He hugged me,” an emotional Lawson added about reclaiming his hero that day in 1973.
Also an Ivy League football player in the early 1960s — who as a running back helped Dartmouth finish with an undefeated season in 1962 while at one time ranked No. 13 in the nation among major college teams — Lawson has used his creative skills as a businessman while focusing on a pair of special recipients.
Lawson’s Presidential plaques
Getting the attention of then President George W. Bush with a framed glass-enclosed plaque he created, which features a Washington D.C./presidential-theme with Bush’s portrait photo as the centerpiece, Lawson, 76, was getting ready to send a similar gift to President Donald Trump.
Lawson, president of America’s Greatest Treasures that specializes in creating such plaques, displayed the Trump piece, a 24-by-36-inch canvas work, during a recent Concord-Farragut Republican Club meeting in Knox County Sheriff’s Office West Precinct.
“In 2004 I started doing this, and I framed one like this and sent it to President George W. Bush,” Lawson told the gathering. “About six weeks went by, and one day at home and I pick up the phone and they said, ‘This is The White House calling.’ I felt like I should be standing, so I immediately stood up at my desk.
“And this lady said … ‘The President received your beautiful plaque and he wants your permission to put it in the National Archives,’” he added. “… And of course I was flattered, and said, ‘where do I sign?’
“I said, ‘I’m honored.’”
Lawson was told his mural of Bush would be transferred to The George W. Bush Presidential Center on the campus of Southern Methodist University in Dallas when the library and museum was opened, which was April 2013, Lawson said after the meeting.
Getting a call years later that the plaque indeed had been received at the Bush Center, Lawson asked, “’What are the chances of this thing ever being displayed on a wall, and me bring my kids and grandkids down there?’
“He said, ‘We have a standard policy that if we’re ever going to show what you’ve donated to the Presidential (Center) library, we’d call you 30 days in advance,’” Lawson added.
His mural of Bush, along with his copies of the U.S. Constitution, Bill of Rights and The Declaration of Independence also caught the eye of the Republican National Committee in 2004.
Lawson and family members subsequently were invited to the 2004 Republican National Convention in Madison Square Garden in New York City.
Special Yankee Stadium visit
Named “Scholastic Athlete of the Year in East Tennessee” during the 1959-60 school year at Knoxville East High School, Lawson had another brush with greatness at Dartmouth when headed south to a road game versus rival Princeton in November 1961.
With the school’s athletic director a former New York Yankees player, “We were the only football team in America that got to work out in Yankee Stadium,” Lawson said a few days after the meeting.
“One of the greatest thrills of my life. ... It was a thrill to stand there and see Babe Ruth’s, Lou Gehrig’s lockers,” he added.
Overall at Dartmouth, “We only lost five games in my three years,” Lawson said. “We were Ivy League champions my junior and senior years (1962 and 1963).”
