Alan Tatum met Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1932 when he was the Governor of New York and running for President of the United States.
When he was nine years old, Tatum met Roosevelt and his aide Tom Farley after a budget speech he gave in Pittsburgh. They took a photograph together, and Roosevelt gave Tatum his private mail code. He wrote Roosevelt a letter later about his father, who was working at the Franklin Mill and might get fired because he had spoken to the Steel Workers Organizing Committee, but the letter wasn't sent and was lost at Tatum's childhood home in Pittsburgh.
He worked for fifty-three years on the Spirit of St. Louis before retiring. He married and had a son, Ted.
In 2002 his letter was found after 2345 Northern State Boulevard was demolished, and the finder sent it to the White House, where it was received by President Bartlet's aide Charlie Young because Bartlet had copied Roosevelt's private mail code as an homage. He was invited to the White House with Ted. He took a photograph with first Bartlet, then Charlie, and stayed to tell them about his meeting with Roosevelt.