Index of University Press Releases

June 18, 2007

Famous South Dakotans reflect on their rises to power, influence
Ross Dolan - The Daily Republic

Ross Dolan/Republic - Former U.S. senator and presidential nominee George McGovern speaks about his life Saturday evening during McGovern Day, a Democratic fundraiser held at Dakota Wesleyan University in Mitchell. Behind McGovern is a picture of him with fellow soldiers during World War II.

In a two-hour Saturday evening reverie that was in turns sentimental, reverential, humorous and conviction-filled, South Dakota contemporaries George McGovern and Al Neuharth shared stories of their early years and their climbs to positions of power and influence.

Titled “An Evening with George McGovern,” the 90-minute session drew hundreds to Dakota Wesleyan University’s Sherman Center in Mitchell. It was one of the events during McGovern Day, an annual fundraiser for the state Democratic Party.

The McGovern-Neuharth event was preceded by a “Barnstorm Rally” at the McGovern Library, at which Democratic leaders rallied the support of the party faithful. Speakers at the rally included Brendan Johnson, the Sioux Falls son of U.S. Sen. Tim Johnson; state House Democratic leader Dale Hargens, Miller; state Senate Democratic leader Scott Heidepriem, Sioux Falls; and U.S. Rep. Stephanie Herseth.

McGovern, who was born in Avon and raised in Mitchell, recalled being collared decades ago by a party leader who convinced him he should accept the party’s top position and rebuild the party at a salary higher than the $4,500 a year he was earning as an instructor at DWU. McGovern later learned he would have to raise the money himself.

He solved that problem he said, “by getting 100 Democrats to pledge $100 a year — it was called the Century Club — and then I started going county to county.” In a computerless era, McGovern kept his contacts on note cards — 42,000 of them — upon which he carefully noted political details and personal information.

The early lives of Neuharth, the founder of USA Today, and McGovern, a former U.S. senator and presidential nominee, had similarities.

Neuharth, born in 1924 in Eureka, began his news career as a paper carrier. A summer job working in the composing room of the Alpena Journal hooked him on journalism.

Neuharth’s father died at age 30 from injuries received in an accident, making it necessary for the family to pull together.

“We learned early on we had to work pretty hard,” he said.

McGovern, born in Avon in 1922, was the son of a Wesleyan Methodist preacher. His dad was often paid with produce and chickens. A handyman of sorts, his father occasionally would purchase, reclaim and sell homes to supplement his family’s income.

“They were Republicans,” McGovern said of his parents, “but they wouldn’t approve of this gang that’s running Washington now.” Cheers broke from the Democratic audience following the comment.

McGovern’s optimism surfaced early. He earned 15 to 25 cents an hour mowing lawns — with a manual push mower— and weeding gardens.

“But I loved that work,” he said, adding, “I’ve been fortunate because I never had a job I didn’t like.”

He qualified that statement by saying that he did not like being a bomber pilot during World War II, but was proud of his contribution to the war effort. “Hitler had to be stopped,” he said.

Both Neuharth and McGovern are long-time baseball fans. McGovern said he still follows the St. Louis Cardinals because his father once played in their farm system. Neuharth is a Yankees fan because, he said, “I like winners.”

Speaking of his early schooling, McGovern described himself as a “voracious reader, who spent his summers in the Carnegie Library.” He didn’t remember “being academically overworked.” His enthusiasm for school rose when he was introduced to debate at Mitchell High School.

Neuharth said he wasn’t good enough athletically to be on a school team, but he figured a way to stay involved with sports.

“I was the first male cheerleader Alpena ever had; and (in that role) I got to meet the prettiest cheerleader Woonsocket ever had.” That was Eleanor Stegeberg, who would marry George McGovern. Mrs. McGovern and her twin sister, Ila, beat George McGovern and his partner in a debate before the MHS student body.

Neuharth early on discovered the power of the press as editor for the Alpena Echo. “I couldn’t play,” he said, “but I could decide which player got the headlines.”

Both men were drawn into World War II. McGovern became a B-24 bomber pilot who flew 35 missions and earned the Distinguished Flying Cross, and Neuharth became a soldier with the 86th Infantry Division, “(Gen. George) Patton’s Army.”

McGovern said he learned only after the war that B-24 crews had about a 50 percent mortality rate during the war and aircrews averaged only 17 missions.

A rapt audience listened as he told of a decision to land his shot-up plane on the short runway of an Adriatic island. With only one of three engines working at touchdown, McGovern said he and his co-pilot literally stood on the plane’s brake pedals. “The tires were a molten mass, but we stopped,” he said, within feet of the runway’s end.

In another harrowing trip, McGovern’s B-24 set down with 110 holes from enemy flak. McGovern remains in awe that only two crew members were wounded.

Following one war memory, McGovern’s voice choked with emotion and, tearful, he paused to regain control.

“I apologize,” he told the crowd. “It’s Eleanor.”

Mrs. McGovern died in January following a long illness. They were married 63 years.

McGovern also told of his support of John F. Kennedy and how it may have cost McGovern his first bid for the Senate. He lost to Sen. Karl Mundt by a percentage point, but at McGovern’s suggestion President Kennedy established the Food for Peace program, which used American farm surpluses to stave off hunger around the world. Storing the surpluses were costing “hundreds of millions of dollars annually,” said McGovern, “and the surpluses contributed to our nation’s standing and helped stabilized governments worldwide.” He called the program “one of the great unsung glories of the United States.”

Perhaps partly to console McGovern for his lost election, Kennedy made McGovern the first director of the Food for Peace program.

“We’re now feeding 18 million children, but that’s a drop in the bucket,” McGovern said.

He suggested that the program could be a better tool against terrorism than the current approach.

“Feeding hungry kids will not only please those kids but their parents, teachers, employers. It might just be that people would see us as something other than the biggest jerk with the biggest club on the block.”

McGovern said a patriot is one who puts his country’s interest ahead of self-interest.

“I’ve always thought of myself as a patriot,” he said. “There never was a time when I would not have sacrificed my life in the interest of my country — never.”

McGovern said he believes most people are liberal but don’t know it.

“Liberalism means a concern for your fellow man or woman. Liberalism means fairness, a sense of social justice, a sense of compassion. A liberal doesn’t see government as an enemy.

“Liberals use government as a positive instrument to improve people’s lives.”

State Democratic House leader Hargens said the best compliment the party could pay McGovern would be to restore it to the power it had under McGovern’s leadership in the 1960s and ’70s. State Democratic Senate leader Heidepriem applauded McGovern’s rebuilding of the state Democratic Party years ago.

“(There were) 105 legislators (in Pierre), 104 of them Republican,” Heidepriem said.

“George McGovern decided to come home and he walked down the alleys and the gravel roads and he talked to Democrats, who up till then, were embarrassed to admit the party they were part of.

“George McGovern believed in the politics of hope,” Heidepriem said.