My Dad passed away Sept 27 at the age of 78. He was strong advocate for peace and social justice issues in the state of Iowa. As a child I knew he chose the cause over the paycheck, but I really had no idea just how much he did over the years. A few years ago he wrote a piece for a reunion he could not attend. It is with love I share with you in his own words just a few of his accomplishments over the years
Sixty years since graduating? What did I do in those years?
Well, right after graduation I served in the Navy and married my high school sweetheart, Mary Hoyt, who was still enrolled at St Luke's School of Nursing in Cedar Rapids.
The Navy sent me to Hawaii, my wife, Mary joined me after receiving her RN degree. We had our first daughter, Jerri Ellen, in Hawaii before being discharged in August 1957.
I was hired as a copywriter for the Fremont Guide & Tribune in Nebraska--where our second daughter, Theresa Eileen, and third, Robbin Marie, daughters were born. Worked for the Des Moines Register and Tribune as an Advertising Account Executive before returning to Nebraska for a better job.
Later my wife, Mary Louise, was diagnosed with acute monocytic leukemia. We moved "back home" to Iowa to be near family members. Mary died in March 1964. For the next four years I continued writing the employees' newsmagazine and other copy for Bankers Life Insurance Company, in Des Moines, now the Principal Financial Group.
Subsequently, I married my second wife, Bonnie who also worked for Bankers Life. We had a son who died at birth, then one more child--a fourth daughter, Carol Ann. In 1969 I was hired as Assistant to the Advertising Manager for Iowa Power and Light Company. My boss soon quit and I became Ad Manager. This job was not comfortable; I did not agree with management’s decision to promote Nuclear power. My disagreement was based on the fact that there was no industry-wide way to dispose of spent nuclear waste. There still isn’t. Needless to say, I started looking for other career opportunities.
Thus, I went to work for a small public relations firm with an option to buy. The owner of the firm was nearing 70, had a bad hip and was tired of the work, which was mainly lobbying. After a few years he had a heart attack and died. This should have been my warning sign of the stress of owning your own business and the long, hard hours of lobbying. It was not; I was buying the firm. Consequently, I had a five by-pass heart surgery in 1994. Through out the years I enjoyed being a professional lobbyist for a number of various clients. Dealing mostly with peace and justice and educational issues. The shortcoming of this quixotic perspective is that it was not very lucrative. You must love a career of helping others and enjoy being in the political arena. We helped the “under dog” and I stayed with it long enough to become an invited member of the “Pioneer Lawmakers" honoring those who have served more than 25 years as an Iowa State House Lawmaker or Lobbyist.
During my lobbying years, I was happy to help obtain the Iowa Educational Grant for the Private Colleges. Am delighted that College students are still able to benefit from this program. Also worked to pass the Iowa Family Farm Act, and was hired by the Iowa Podiatric Medical Society to be their Executive Director and Lobbyist. We lobbied to have the Iowa Podiatrists recognized as physicians when it was determined that their training justified the recognition and then added the ankle to their scope of practice and leg muscles to their Practice Act over the years. Also, the Child Day Care Centers group was another client for which we lobbied and improved their State Appropriations.
One of our most interesting challenges had to do with Iowa's General Practitioner shortage. The Iowa Medical School had a healthy number of specialists BUT not general practitioners. The Des Moines College of Osteopathic Medicine & Surgery (COMS) was graduating D.O.s who were, for the most part, general practitioners. At that time the COMS' President and the Iowa Governor came up with a plan: Iowa would subsidize COMS with $8,000 per student for a third of the entering class. We lobbied for this program and it went well for almost 20 years until the COMS' President was able to offset the subsidy with East Coast students, who were able to pay the high tuition. Unfortunately, the $8,000 per student went to the College, not to the students. Yet it helped with the doctor shortage, especially in Iowa's rural communities.
During Bishop Dingman's tenure we worked for the Iowa Catholic Conference. Which enabled me to work with him and other Iowa Bishops in a coalition with two farm organizations: the Iowa National Farmers Organization and the Iowa Farmers Union. This coalition worked for family farmers especially during the Farm Crisis of the 1980s. The Coalition's biggest success was the passage of Chapter172C, which disallowed Iowa meat packers from owning feedlots, which was in direct competition with our family farms.
It was during this period Bishop Dingman and Fr. Bryan Hehir prepared and published Strangers and Guests: Toward Community in the Heartland, under the auspices of the National Catholic Rural Life Conference. Much of the editing of this piece was done by Bishop Dingman's Rural Life Committee, which I was a participating member in Des Moines.
In the 1990s I lobbied for Iowa's eight largest School Districts. The client was really an association formed to counter a group of smaller schools. They were taking advantage of their large representation in the Iowa General assembly. The big issue was the Iowa Foundation Appropriation Formula's distribution and Iowa's reluctance to consolidate schools.
In 1980 we managed “The Committee to Protect the Constitution.” The Iowa Code offers this amendment opportunity every ten years. Any update, if so needed, is triggered by an Iowa Legislative Resolution, per the Iowa Constitution. The Governor has not role, but the Citizens of Iowa have a chance to vote on the "proposed amendments" after an amendment(s) have been processed and passed by two separate General Assemblies.
The need for this Committee was occasioned by a group of conservative " high rollers' headed by a former state senator author of a number of self serving amendments limiting taxes on upper income earners.
We countered with educational radio, TV and print ads. The Committee was constantly strapped for money. But in the end, with the help of two former Iowa Governors: Ray and Fulton along with retried Lt.Governor Art Neu we whipped Iowans for Tax Relief on the ballot issue in 1980 and again 1990. Thus we were able to keep the Iowa Constitution from being amended with our fund-raising, writing radio, TV and other media commercials and educating the people of Iowa. The ads were complemented with Public Service announcements (PSAs) telling why it was important to keep the Iowa Constitution as it is. This was a major accomplishment.
My wife, Bonnie, with her office administration and accounting experience ran the office and kept track of all the legislative amendments and coordinated clients visiting the State Capitol to talk to their Senators and Representatives. She also handled the Podiatrists' State Conventions and Continuing Education Seminars. As you can see, I was almost unnecessary.
We both achieved a lot of self-satisfaction with helping those in need. Looking back on the fifty years since leaving the halls of Loras College, I am content with what I have accomplished in my on-going life career
Our daughters have added to our family joy with three sons-in-law, seven grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren. Daughter, Jerri has three children and resides in St. Paul, Minnesota. She works as a Payroll Specialist. Daniel and Hayley are now both in college. David, the eldest son, served in the U.S. Army; now he and his wife live in St. Paul, with their two young children.
Other three daughters went West. They live in and around the Portland, Oregon area. Theresa is an Environmental and Recycling Specialist. Robbin has two boys, Nathan and Peter. Robbin works for the VP of research at OHSU. Carol Ann has a son, Noah who is in first grade and daughter, Lucy age 4 and is now in preschool. Carol Ann is stage manger for a theatrical playhouse in Portland.
just barely cling on when the reality of February hits. So, this year I embraced my need to dig in other ways.
