U.S. Rep. John Kline
On serving as the Marine Corps aide to Presidents Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan
One time I was stuck in a hotel elevator with President Reagan. It was the president, his doctor, senior staff—a fairly full elevator. When elevators get stuck, sometimes people get a little antsy or claustrophobic. When you’re stuck with Reagan, it’s a different experience because he’s just so calm and says, “Well, this reminds me,” and he starts telling jokes and stories and he puts people at ease and they’re laughing.
President Reagan was the best joke teller I ever met. He could tell jokes with appropriate accents. If it was a pirate joke, he sounded like Long John Silver, and his timing was perfect. It’s why we call him the Great Communicator—he had that ability to connect. When he’s in an elevator and he’s telling his funny stories, it’s a highlight.
It was often said that Reagan was just a puppet, that he wasn’t very smart, that he just memorized his lines. But I remember being at Camp David and going down to his cabin to take him something. He was in his office and was completely rewriting a speech on an old-fashioned yellow pad. I heard from others in the White House that he did that routinely. It hit me that he was absolutely his own man—he was president of the United States and not following someone else’s lead.
President Carter also was a pleasure to be with. The Carters treated the military aides like we were members of the family. He liked to fly-fish, so I took it up too. He made sure he was surrounded by people who wanted to learn to fish and cast. We’d be fishing and he’d look downstream and say, “John needs some help.”
President Carter taught me to cross-country ski. I preferred Reagan’s passion for riding horses. One time we were skiing at Camp David and Carter hit a rock. He fell and broke his collarbone, and they had to fly him to Bethesda for treatment. The world hardly knew it had happened. He had his arm in a sling, but it never caused him to slow down a bit. He ran miles every day. I used to go run with him—he was very fit and pretty tough.
Marty Chester, attorney at Faegre & Benson
On having President Barack Obama as a law professor at the University of Chicago
The University of Chicago Law School has a charity auction that raises money for students who work in public interest over the summer. Three friends and I, who were in Obama’s constitutional law class, won the trip to Springfield to spend the day with him at the Illinois Legislature. He took us on the Senate floor and we shadowed him for day. We all had lunch at a Mexican place in Springfield, and he knew that he was destined for more things. He said, “Down the road, you guys all get one phone call.” My friends and I joke about when we’ll cash it in.
It was 2001, in the waning days of the George Ryan administration. He was being investigated [for corruption]. We were walking by the governor’s office and here comes George Ryan. He had a trench coat on and a funny old-man hat, and the man looked so defeated. He was by himself, walking to his office. Obama stopped and talked to him, and he was really friendly with Ryan.
Obama was a senior lecturer, and he taught a constitutional law elective on race and the law. There were only a dozen students in the class. He was a great professor—you could tell he was the real deal. He’s extremely smart, politically and intellectually. But he’s also a nice, down-to-earth guy.
He could have a theoretical discussion about the finer points of constitutional law with the best of them. And it was clear he had a street-level knowledge of how issues like racial inequality on the constitutional level work in real life. After spending the day with Obama in Springfield, I saw that he had really sharp political skills too. It was clear he really thought about the issues and would come up with ideas that were both intellectually coherent and politically smart. He had a combination of actual smarts and political smarts that you don’t see very often.
People knew he was in the legislature but that wasn’t seen as a particular selling point. He had a reputation as a good professor—he was well-known as a charismatic, friendly guy and people liked him.
Sally Pillsbury, Republican Party stalwart
On President Dwight Eisenhower
After George [Pillsbury] and I were married, we moved to New York and I worked at the eastern states’ headquarters for the 1948 Republican Convention. When it was time for the 1952 Convention, the headquarters was at the Blackstone Hotel in Chicago. A woman whom I’d worked with in New York was head of general arrangements. She said she needed receptionists, so I went down to Chicago and had this fabulous job to sit amongst every person who went to greet and see Eisenhower in his personal suite. They would come to my desk and I would send a note back to his appointment secretary. And they were not only delegates but congressmen and senators and everyone else.
Eisenhower was wonderful. He was such a middle-America guy, but very strong-minded in a kind way. He was very friendly, a wonderful man. He was a very warm person and often when people weren’t there we would go chat with him. We wouldn’t talk politics; we would talk about the day and the people who came in.
The thing I remember—it’s been quoted a whole lot—he was talking about getting along in a family and he said that when his family would have cake, one person would cut the cake and the other person could choose the piece. I always thought that was very sweet. He had a wonderful family, and he was just a grounded man. He seemed like a regular guy. That’s one reason why people really admired him and really liked him and trusted him.
Former U.S. Sen. Rudy Boschwitz
On President Ronald Reagan and Sen. John McCain
I didn’t support Reagan in 1976 when he was trying to get the nomination from Ford, but when he came into the presidency I got to like him much better. It was during the Cold War and I got to know him quite well. I was often in the White House, the first Minnesotan who was a member of the Senate leadership other than Hubert Humphrey for a long, long time. The Republican leaders of the House and Senate would meet with Reagan every week in the Cabinet Room.
You would seldom leave a meeting with Ronald Reagan and turn to one of your colleagues and ask, “What did he say?” You knew what he said, especially if he was interested in the issues. Some issues he didn’t have a lot of interest in, and he would let the others talk. But he had strongly held opinions and he let you know it. You left having a sense of direction. Interestingly, he was a little hard to get close to as an individual—even his children found that to be the case.
I like John McCain very much, and I think it’s a very unusual person who goes to Washington and is not consumed by the ways of Washington and his or her own self-importance. That has not happened to him. He has remained very much a free spirit, much to the disgruntlement of the Republicans. I was with him from 1986 to 1990 and we helped one another a great deal. I raised funds for him and he for me, and I’ve stayed in his home in Sedona.
There are very few people who maintain their independence over a 25-year period in Washington, in action and spirit, and McCain has done so. He teamed up with the most liberal members of the Democratic side, like Russ Feingold and Teddy Kennedy. That didn’t bother me, but it sure did some of our colleagues. Outside of work he enjoyed having a good time and he was quite outspoken, even then. He was extraordinarily direct. He wore his heart on his sleeve. If there was something on his mind, you heard about it.
Robyne Robinson, anchor for Fox 9
On her uncle, Imam Warith Deen Mohammed, who was born Wallace Deen Muhammad, son of Nation
of Islam founder Elijah Muhammad. Robinson talked about him before he died in September 2008
My mother’s baby sister married Wallace Mohammed when she was 18, renounced Catholicism and became a member of the Nation of Islam. It was fascinating growing up with that connection to the Nation of Islam. When Elijah Muhammad died, I was 16 and my cousin was 15. Her family moved into the Nation of Islam compound in Hyde Park [in Chicago] and her whole life changed.
My uncle knew Muslims from all walks of life. When Muhammad Ali was boxing Joe Frazier in the Thrilla in Manila, he was close to my uncle. We were able to sit with Khalilah Ali to watch the fight on satellite TV in the mansion. When my cousin turned 16, my uncle asked what she wanted. She asked for Kool & The Gang to play at her party. She invited all her friends, and we were all dancing in the living room.
My uncle was always a very quiet man and very shy. People would call and come by; it seemed like any normal household. It wasn’t until I was a teenager that I started to see things. You realize that gravitas and weight of being the son of Elijah Muhammad.
My uncle was close to Malcolm X. He was very influential in encouraging Malcolm X to make his pilgrimage to Mecca. [Trying to talk to him about that] is like pulling teeth to get him to answer some questions. He’s very guarded and rightly so. His family legacy is always going to be a controversy in this country. I don’t talk about religion to him.
He’s a quiet man and he preaches very quietly. He’s not a fiery orator like Louis Farrakhan. There’s a peaceful quietness to him and he is so clear and honest when he talks to you. He looks at you very directly; it can unnerve you. But he never did anything to make you feel intimidated.
Former Governor and Congressman Al Quie
On Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and President Gerald Ford
It was November 1976, the year before [Israeli Prime Minister] Menachem Begin came in and two years before the Camp David Accords. I was in Cairo as a delegate to UNESCO, checking up on Egypt and Israel, where there were hot issues. Anwar Sadat was giving his state of the union message, and I met him at his home an hour later. He talked to me about his plan to bring peace to that area. He laid it all out—it was the most fascinating thing. The way he gave his speech, I knew he had something spiritual happen in his life. I said, “Share that with me and I’ll share mine with you.” He said something spiritual did happen, and now he’s back to praying five times a day and practicing his religion.
Sadat was very serious, and he said, “When I started the war in 1973,”—I never heard anyone say that—“no country could protect its borders anymore. We have to find another way to solve it.” Then he said, “If only that old woman [Golda Meir] was still here. No one is strong enough to take that position in Israel.” He just wanted to talk to the people of Israel. He said if they could build a peace agreement between Israel and Egypt, then he could bring Jordan in and then Saudi Arabia, and then he said he could bring in Syria. The last thing he said was, “That crazy man in Libya [Muammar el-Qaddafi]—I don’t think we’ll ever get him.” He had a big ambition and he was serious. There was real passion on his part.
It wasn’t until a year later that he talked about his plan in public. And a few years later he did talk to Israel. It was interesting that when I went back there again in the 1980s that the people of Israel were in awe of Sadat, who had just been killed. There wasn’t a good feeling about him in Egypt.
On President Gerald Ford
When I was in Congress I used to meet with two other people and Ford in prayer once a week. We had a close relationship. He had a reputation for being a bumbling guy, but it was totally untrue. He was fully aware of the issues. I never saw him say, “I don’t know anything about that.” I thought he was brilliant, but his brilliance didn’t come through because he never flaunted it. He was also so solid in his principles. When he gave amnesty to all the people during the Vietnam War who went to Canada, I was so proud of him. That was really neat.
One time I was at odds with the federal Office of Education. Ford said, “Can you come down here and we’ll talk about it?” They laid out their position and I laid out mine. When I was done, he looked at the Education people and said, “What’s wrong with that?” They said, “Well, it probably is an all-right idea.” And he said, “Then you go for it.” He did a 180-degree turn right there.
Dwight Opperman, former CEO of West Publishing
On Supreme Court Justices Harry Blackmun and Warren Burger
I first met Harry Blackmun when he was on the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. He was very meticulous and he was slow to get things done. Supreme Court decisions go through a long process before they are printed, and then they get printed in a preliminary form. He would hold up the printing of the final decisions for months. He had to check everything. [West Publishing] started an interim bound volume of Supreme Court opinions and then a special bound volume because it took so long before the final decision came out.
He called me several times on simple little things. One time we had used the wrong initial for Lewis Powell—not in print but on some of our papers. It was Lewis F. Powell and we used the wrong initial. Harry had to call and tell me; Powell didn’t call me.
Blackmun worked long hours. They have a library for the Supreme Court justices but he considered it his library—he didn’t like interlopers in his library. People don’t appreciate what the Supreme Court judges do—all the writs of certiorari. He would carry two briefcases of that junk. He was working all the time. He did everything himself instead of having a law clerk do it.
He would come out here for the 8th Circuit Judicial Conference once a year and he would give a report on the Supreme Court. He would talk for more than an hour each time. People wouldn’t miss it because he was real caustic about some of the members of the court, especially [Justice Antonin] Scalia.
Blackmun started the Supreme Court Musicale. It’s held once a year, and it’s a nice affair in one of the conference rooms for about 40 people, Supreme Court justices and spouses and their guests. He had a keen interest in classical music and baseball—I guess those things go together. He was definitely a Twins fan.
People would say that Burger was pompous, but I don’t think he was. He had a very courtly demeanor, and his public appearance was far different from his personal appearance. He was warm and he’d chat a lot with you. Blackmun wasn’t like that.
I thought very highly of both of them. Minnesota should think highly of having them both on the Supreme Court. They were both very good jurists.
Lori Peterson, Minneapolis attorney
On President Jimmy Carter
I stalked Jimmy Carter before it became illegal. I campaigned for him when I was 12, and by the time I was 17 I was on the state central committee for his campaign. One of his friends working on the campaign told him about me, and he was nice enough to say, “Tell her she can come down and visit.” So I went in 1980 and spent probably a week in Plains over my spring vacation. He had just left the presidency. I imagine he wasn’t in the best of moods, but to make time like that for someone he didn’t know, who had no wealth that he would seek for the Carter Center, who had no access to power or family members who were powerful—it was simply kindness on his part. It still astounds me to this day that he would put himself out like that.
I stayed with the Carters’ cousins. We went over to the Carters’ house, and Rosalynn opened the door first. Then he came right behind her and he gave me a huge hug. I started bawling, it was such a big deal for me. He had this sweet smile on his face and he said, “C’mon in and let’s show you the house.” The house is very modest, a rambler. It’s the same house they lived in before he was president. I saw them every day. One time they picked me up in the presidential limo and we got to ride in that. They took me to church with them and to dinner in different places.
All this time Jimmy has stayed in touch. Through today, if I write him, he writes back. If he writes a book, he inscribes one and sends it to me. He and Roz are just incredible people, so humble and dedicated to doing the right thing. They’ve never changed—that’s what so neat about them. He could have been on the speaking circuit making tons of money but he’s devoted himself to the causes he believes in. He’s a brilliant person and very kind. He’s also very funny and laid-back.
One time when I was down in Georgia having dinner with the Carters, we were standing around afterward while people got their picture taken with Jimmy and Rosalynn. Jimmy came up and he took some of my hair in each hand, from each side of my head, and tied it under my chin like a beard. Rosalynn was laughing, and so was the Secret Service.
Former Gov. Arne Carlson
On hosting Hillary Clinton at the governor’s mansion
We had a wonderful time with Hillary. She was in town in the summer of 1991 for some meetings about health care. She was running around all day and when she got to the residence she had her professional hat on.
My wife, Susan, is very good at making people feel at ease and she’s very informal and likes to laugh a lot. Hillary and Susan hit it off very well. Hillary warmed up and the two of them had a ball. We both have daughters, and we were discussing that and many other things, and then Hillary said, “I’m really hungry. Can we raid the refrigerator?” She was happy to get a Diet Cherry Coke. Apparently they don’t have that in Arkansas. I don’t think they went to bed before 1 or 2 in the morning. It was a lot of fun.
Hillary is very nice, very diligent and hardworking—very committed. She was warm and caring, and when she was able to relax, when she felt comfortable, what came out was the mother, the sense of humor. She’s fast to laugh and joke. I was very impressed because prior to that time I bought into the notion that she was chilly. But often we mistake normal human reserve for arrogance or aloofness or coldness. She wasn’t like that at all. She’s a good person.
Ryan Winkler, attorney and state representative
On serving as Walter Mondale’s driver during the 2002 U.S. Senate campaign
In the premature twilight of downtown Minneapolis in late October, former Vice President Walter Mondale was riding in the quiet back seat of a car that I was driving. It was 2002, and Mondale was just wrapping up his first day of campaigning for the U.S. Senate seat vacated by the death of Paul Wellstone.
It was not a typical day for a political candidate. Television cameras and reporters from around the world followed Mondale’s every step. Macalester College was packed with teenage students ardently cheering for the elder statesman of the Minnesota DFL party. A walk through the skyways in Minneapolis attracted a throng of hundreds of downtown office workers offering their support.
During that drive home, Mondale was taking calls from old friends, dignitaries and party leaders. Sen. Barbara Boxer, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, and Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle were among the callers. Then he took a call from Terry McAuliffe, chair of the Democratic National Committee, offering $750,000 in funds for the campaign.
Shortly after he took the call from McAuliffe, Mondale made a call to his campaign treasurer. He said, “No, it’s too much. It’s unseemly. Don’t let ’em take more than half of what Terry wants to send.”
Mondale said thank you, and hung up. He sat back in the seat, and was quiet for a long time. Then, reflecting on the campaign day that had passed, he said simply: “Well, at least nobody told me to screw off” (except he used a less polite synonym for “screw”).
Much has been said about the decency, civility and public-spirited nature of Mondale’s career. Those observations are largely correct. Though I have had opportunities to meet and visit with quite a number of national political figures and local politicians, none I have ever met was as funny as Walter F. Mondale.
Mitch Pearlstein, founder and president of the Center of the American Experiment
On Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and President George H. W. Bush
Margaret Thatcher was the keynote for our annual dinner in May 1997. She was just a treat. When we picked her up at the airport, the plane was getting ready to land and I asked one of the Scotland Yard guys, “Who gets in the car first, me or the Prime Minister?” I remember him saying, “Ah, she doesn’t care.”
We sat in the back seat and had a conversation. There was nothing off-putting or overly formal about her. She was just charming to work with the entire time. She was proper, and there was a certain stoic quality to her. She certainly wasn’t giddy. Was she absolutely, perfectly gracious? No question.
We were in the Minneapolis Convention Center with more than 2,200 people, a sold-out crowd. The prime minister had to be in Virginia the next day to do a commencement speech. After she spoke and after we ate, I walked over to her on the dais and said, “Lady Thatcher, I’m afraid you have a plane to catch.” She looked up at me and said, “Oh, must I? I am having such a good time!” There was a large part of me that wanted to say, “Oh, you can stay!” Then I made the announcement that she had to leave. She walked in front of the table on the dais, up on the stage and gave this big wave to the crowd. It makes perfect sense if you understand that Margaret Thatcher was a politician. She gave this great, populous political wave.
When President George H. W. Bush came to speak at the annual dinner in 2002, it was April and snowing. He said the weather reminded him of World War II when he was a pilot. He was speaking at the Radisson in Bloomington, and there was a wedding going on at the hotel. There were all sorts of security precautions, having the windows covered up, et cetera. He went out and greeted the bride and groom. Later, my wife and I were with him in the green room, and I said, “Mr. President, let us give you some privacy so you can collect your thoughts.” And he said, “I don’t have any thoughts.” He kept on sitting there and talking to us. He was comfortable, and nice and friendly, and gave a warm speech. He was wonderful.
Harvey Mackay, chairman of MackayMitchell Envelope Company and author of Swim With the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive and other business books
On Fidel Castro
In 1976 Jimmy Carter was sworn in as president, and he was confident he could accomplish anything. He wanted to make amends with Castro. Mondale was the vice president and, being from Minnesota, he picked our Chamber of Commerce to lead the trip. I was an officer at the time, so I headed the delegation to see if we could break the barrier with Castro.
I went out and got leaders of all the major companies in the area—Pillsbury, General Mills, 3M, Honeywell, IDS, Cargill—and we went down there for five days to negotiate with Castro. I did my homework and found out that he spoke English very well, but he would never speak English to an American. He always used an interpreter.
When we got to Cuba we went to the Palace of the Revolution and here he’s sitting with 30 to 50 of his military aides all dressed in green uniforms, and we’re having cocktails. I went to meet him for the first time, and I was prepared to make some conversation. I said, “Comandante, you look like you’re in magnificent shape. What do you do to keep in such magnificent shape?” He’s 6 foot 3 inches and overpowering. He said through his interpreter that he’s a bowler, that he built a bowling alley in the palace. He loves it and became very proficient. He points to the generals and shows me his black book where he’s written down how much money he won from “these turkeys.”
Then he took his sleeve, ripped it up to his shoulder, and tells me he had an injury and couldn’t bowl with his right arm—he showed me the gash. Just then Time took a picture and it was in the magazine, a picture of him pulling his sleeve out, showing me this gash. He couldn’t bowl with his right arm but he’s ambidextrous and he can bowl with his left. He’s working his way back. I looked him straight in the eye and I said, “Comandante, I won the University of Minnesota bowling championship three years in a row.” He got so excited, he said directly to me in English, “Oh, you did?”
Castro honestly knew more about Minnesota than I did. He had been prepped and had done his homework, and he would throw these extraneous facts about Minnesota out there. He really, truly blew us away with his personality, his humor, his quotes, his knowledge, his preparedness. You could see how he mesmerized 10 million people.
Paul Ridgeway, president of Ridgeway International
On Mikhail Gorbachev and European royals
When Mikhail Gorbachev came to Minnesota in 1990, he was here for about eight hours. The pre-planning was fun but challenging—we had only two weeks. President Bush the senior didn’t want him coming here because he was visiting a Democratic governor [Rudy Perpich]. There was intrigue at every level.
When he arrived, we took him to the Radisson in downtown Minneapolis, where he was going to meet the Carlson family, a major sponsor. We took him through the greeting line, and he was meeting all sorts of people and taking pictures with them: Skip and Barbara Gage, Curt and Arleen Carlson, Marilyn Carlson Nelson.
Then one of the public relations people came over to me and said, “The photos didn’t turn out. Can you do something about it?” I said I would talk to the ambassador. I talked to him and Gorbachev, and he was very gracious about it. We shot more pictures in the hallway on the way to the luncheon—he had to approve that. He went the extra mile when he could have said no. We were deeply appreciative of that.
I remember when [Norwegian] King Olav was here and Gov. Al Quie had a dinner in his honor. It was for his king, and my king, and it was really exciting. I love those moments. I remember the king being so excited when we went to Concordia College, driving around Fargo and Moorhead and people were waving Norwegian and American flags. It was really moving. All of those things are really a big deal to the royals when they are in another country and they see people excited to have them here.
Sam Kaplan, U.S. ambassador to Morocco
On Sen. Paul Wellstone
It was January 1990, and the senatorial candidates for opposing Rudy Boschwitz were beginning to surface. One day we got a call from our dear friend Arthur Himmelman. He said, “You and Sylvia [Kaplan, his wife] must meet Paul Wellstone.” I said, “I don’t think so—he may be to the left of Lenin, and we are already supporting another candidate for the Senate.”
Arthur called again, and finally Sylvia said to me, “We can’t hurt Arthur’s feelings. If he wants us to meet this person, we should meet him.” Very reluctantly I agreed that we would meet him in our office. One day Arthur brought Paul up, and it was love at first sight, actually. He was so smart. He knew right away that if he could figure out a way into Sylvia’s heart, I was going to be the drag-along king. He did. We were so impressed with Paul, not only because of his position on things that made such good sense, but he exuded the kind of energy the race would take. We told him that we could not support him because we were already supporting somebody else. But then that somebody else dropped out and we immediately cast our lot with Paul.
You could just see that this was a ball of energy and excitement and he felt so passionately about what he was talking about. Paul had a very special way of responding to people’s questions. He made you think you had asked the most important and best question in the world. And when you were talking to him, it was as if there was no one else in the world. Later we gave a fundraiser for him at our house, and we raised $8,000. At the time Paul thought he had died and gone to heaven because the most he had raised before was $2,200.
Mike Freeman, Hennepin County attorney
On Presidents John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson and Bill Clinton
I was a big baseball fan, and in 1962 when I was 15 my dad [Secretary of Agriculture Orville Freeman] promised to take me to Opening Day of the Washington Nationals game. I was at his office waiting for him and something came up, so we didn’t get there until the third inning. I was really angry. We were supposed to sit in the president’s box, but by the time we got there, there wasn’t a seat. They weren’t about to kick out the Secretary of Agriculture, so we were sitting on folding chairs to the left of the dugout.
The game was on and the president was there. I got to say hello to him. During the game two or three balls rolled by me, and eventually I stuck one in my pocket. My dad just winked at me. When we got home he said, “Son, I know you were disappointed about missing part of the game. I have to meet with the president on Saturday. Why don’t you come with me and he’ll autograph the ball.”
We got to the Oval Office and Mrs. [Evelyn] Lincoln was manning the door. We walked in and President Kennedy was behind the desk. He was open and friendly and warm, and he asked where I went to school, some other questions. He signed my baseball and I said, “Thank you very much, Mr. President” and started to back out and leave. He said, “Go sit over there.” And he had me sitting on one of two loveseats in front of the fireplace and he sat on a rocker. He and my dad talked about ag policy for 45 minutes.
My dad worked full-time in agriculture—I rarely heard anyone who could talk at his level. The president, who has 20 topics just as important, knew as much as Dad did. They went back and forth and the dialogue went on. How much he knew and how much my dad had to use to keep up with him—it just blew my mind. He said, “Well, Orville, I think we’ve come to a meeting of the minds.” He turned to me and winked and said, “Did you enjoy it?” I was included in the policy discussion between my two heroes. Listening to him talk ag policy to a guy who does it all the time and keeping up with him and staying ahead of him was pretty impressive.
Another time, I had the chance to fly with President and Mrs. Johnson. She was the kindest person and went out of her way to be nice to me. He came down the aisle and gave her a peck on the cheek, and he grabbed a whole handful of danish from a tray. And she said, “Now, Lyndon, that’s not on your diet.” And he looked at me and said, “Tell Momma to lighten up, I’m a hungry man!” He winked and Mrs. Johnson smiled and just said, “Oh, Lyndon.” They made me part of it all.
I met President Clinton when I was Hennepin County Attorney for the first time. He was running for president in 1992 and giving a speech to local police and prosecutors. I knew I would have a chance to meet him, and I heard that he was so engaging when he talked to you. I was prepared to not be impacted by that. I said to myself, “You’ve met Presidents Kennedy, Johnson, Carter. Steel yourself.” He came down the line and someone introduced me as the son of Orville Freeman. He said, “The greatest secretary of agriculture ever.” In seconds I’m completely mesmerized. He was just amazing. I’ve never seen anybody get into your eyes and into you as quickly as he did, and that includes Hubert Humphrey, who was mythical and magical.
Wheelock Whitney, philanthropist, politician, fundraiser
On his long friendship with President George H.W. Bush
I grew up in St. Cloud and went through ninth grade there, and then I went to Andover, a prep school in Boston. In March 1942 a friend asked if I was going to the prom. I said no. The only girls I knew lived in St. Cloud and they weren’t going to come all the way to Boston to go to a dance with me. He suggested that I ask my sister [Sally Pillsbury], who went to school on the East Coast. I said, “C’mon, I’m a sophomore, she’s a senior. She’s not going to want to go prom with her kid brother and dance with all his friends.”
I wrote her—in those days you didn’t call people—and asked if she’d be interested in coming to the prom. She wrote back and said, “Yes, I’ll come, but on one condition: Please let me have at least one dance with a senior.” I told her I’d do the best I could.
I only knew one senior fairly well. George Bush played on the varsity basketball team and I was on junior varsity. We used to scrimmage together and I used to guard him. He was my ace in the hole. A few days later I saw him walking down the street and asked if he had a minute. I was really nervous. My mouth was dry and my hands were all wet. I asked him if he was going to the prom. He said, “Of course.” I blurted out, “Would you dance with my sister?” It was the hardest question I think I’ve asked anyone in my life.
From his pocket he pulled out his dance card—there were 14 dances with an intermission in the middle. This was a much better system than today, where you dance with the same person all night. Then you danced with your date and you danced with different people for some of the dances. He said, “Wheels, if you’d only asked me a week ago. Look at this—my dance card is full.”
He could see the color drain out of my face. This was the only senior I knew. I was just heartbroken and he could tell. He looked at his card again and said, “Could your sister dance on the fourth dance? I was going to dance with my date then, but I’ll dance with your sister.” It was about the kindest thing I’d ever heard of. That was George Bush. My sister danced with him that night and thought he was wonderful, and she has always supported him since. And he and I have been good friends since that day.
He’s a genuinely wonderful human being. He has a big heart. He values his family and his friends. He doesn’t just talk about it—he lives his life that way.
Bill Green, superintendent of Minneapolis Public Schools
On Martin Luther King Jr., Thurgood Marshall and W.E.B. Du Bois
I sat on the lap of Thurgood Marshall as a kid, but I also knew Martin Luther King Jr. and W.E.B. Du Bois—at least my family did. In New Orleans, my dad was a minister and he was involved in the civil rights movement. Andrew Young, King’s lieutenant, grew up in our church and his mother and my mother were best friends. Whenever King came to New Orleans with Andrew they would come to the house for dinner. And when my father was dean of students at Fisk University in Nashville, when Du Bois would come to speak, he would stay at our house. Thurgood Marshall also used to come through Nashville to litigate cases, and he would stay at our house as well.
I didn’t have any deep, meaningful conversations with them. I was a child, around 10 to 13 years old, and they were adults. But with Thurgood Marshall, I was very impressed that an African American could be a lawyer. I remember him to be a lot of fun. He could tell some pretty raunchy stories—he was a guy who knew how to party. When he was doing law work he was quite serious and quite focused; he was noted for being a hard worker and actually a taskmaster. But when he was off the clock he could party. He could tell stories, he was outgoing.
I remember as a kid there being a whole lot of laughter. He was fun to be with. I didn’t get his jokes. I knew they were naughty, but I didn’t get them. He was very warm and he could be focused on the adults and be focused on the kids at the same time. He was that kind of guy.
I don’t remember much about Du Bois other than the fact that I played with his beard. He was much more reserved. I seem to recall him being distracted, irritable, distant. It was about the time he was going to leave the country. He moved to Africa, and he died there.
King would come to town to speak or raise funds. There was a kind of reserve about him. He laughed and was not as gregarious as Marshall, but he was warm. He would tell these quiet things that I couldn’t always hear. When there was laughter, it tended to be soft. There wasn’t an eruption like when Thurgood was there.
He was formal. I remember getting an indication of him showing up when my dad or mom would pull the drapes. There wouldn’t be any light emanating from inside, and that set the tone. New Orleans was a tense place at the time, because schools were being desegregated throughout the South. In the 1960s, there were actual riots in the streets, and the same thing in Nashville. At the time, King didn’t have that iconic status. He was viewed by black people and a lot of black middle-class folks as a troublemaker. A lot of black folks and black preachers did not want to be associated with him.
I remember one time when King was there, there were about four or five people and the room seemed to fill up. It wasn’t the fact that a lot of people were there, but everyone seemed so big. Another time it was just King and another person who came over, and I was up the steps watching. But a lot of times, I was just a kid, so I was off playing with my friends.
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