F ROM T HE I N B OX
As we prepared the Fall/Winter 2008
issue of Ohio Today we discovered
photos from a 1968 mock Republican
convention and chose one (above) for
publication. While we found hundreds
of photos of this nationally televised
event, we had little written information
about the proceedings. We issued a call
to alumni to share their stories; here is
what they had to say.
(Additional letters and full text
for all letters are available online at
www.ohio.edu/ohiotoday.)
Look, Ma, it’s me!
Imagine my surprise when, upon
looking through my Fall/Winter 2008
copy of Ohio Today, I see a very youthful
photo of myself on the back cover! I am
the young man with the striped tie in the
middle of the picture (above).
The year 1968 was my first
presidential election in which to vote.
The voting age then was 21, and with
a Nov. 1 birthday, I turned that age just
several days before the election.
It was also my first, and last, time
to vote for a Republican presidential
candidate! Oh, if only we could have
predicted the Nixon presidency. My vote
was mostly an anti-Vietnam War vote, as
I am sure was the case for many others
at that mock political convention.
After leaving Athens, I moved to
Georgia at the U.S. Army’s request. (I
had one of those incredibly low lottery
numbers in the draft. But I was lucky
and never had to go fight a war I didn’t
believe in.)
I made Georgia my home and now
work for the Georgia Department of Labor
in the area of vocational rehabilitation
and assistive technology. It’s been a good
career and an opportunity to help people
with disabilities.
I have been married to an OU
classmate (Darla Grow, BSHS ’71 and
MA ’72) for 36 years. I still have family
in Ohio, and up until two years ago, I’d
journey back to the campus in April to
run the Athens Marathon.
Forty years later, and politics and
elections are still exciting. I thank Ohio U.
for my education, and for being part of a
time in our history when going to college
was more than just attending classes.
John “Jack” Gilson, BA ’70, MA ’72
Fayetteville, Ga.
A smoke-filled room
The photograph of the 1968 mock
political convention brings back many
memories. During the spring of 1968,
Roger Scholl (AB ’74) and I were finishing
our freshman year. Roger had been an
active Young Republican in high school. He
was excited by the mock convention and
worked to become a state chairman.
Forty years have blurred many details; I
believe he took the reins of the great state
of Georgia. He recruited me to join the
delegation. I assumed that we would be
observers of a great spring spectacle.
Roger had a different idea. During the
speeches by the candidates, we organized
the Southern block. We negotiated that,
during the first roll call vote, the Southern
block would pass.
After the first vote, as best I can
remember, Florida and a few other states
joined the Southern block. We voted again
as a block, and during that vote, I distinctly
remember turning to Roger and with
absolute astonishment saying, “Roger,
we’re running this show.” He just grinned.
After the second roll call vote, New York
came to us, and in a smoke-filled room,
we negotiated an acceptable candidate.
An interesting footnote to this story is that
I do not remember whom we nominated.
I remember a pervasive naiveté on
campus. During the 1967–68 academic
year, women still had “hours,” members
of the opposite sex were not allowed in
dorm rooms and students had to dress
for Sunday dinner. The administration
asserted “in loco parentis,” meaning
that they assumed some sort of parental
obligations over the students. Route 33
was a narrow umbilical to civilization.
Long-distance telephone calls cost
something like 30 cents a minute. Much
of our news came via Parkersburg, W.Va.
In many ways, that convention was the
swan song for Athens’ age of innocence.
Campus was a much different place in
the fall of 1968.
Perhaps, there are a thousand points
of view, an equal number of stories
and many more lessons as a result of
the mock convention. I learned that a
little power can first influence and then
invigorate many people.
Perhaps most importantly, I have a
great appreciation for our current system
of primary elections. While an election
season now is a couple years long, and
we are inundated with nonsense, the
alternative is much worse.
Bob Wuerth, BS ’71, MS ’73
Brecksville, Ohio
End of an era
I was ready to toss my latest Ohio
Today in the recycling bin when the backS U M M E R
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FROM THE IN BOX
Unsafe at any speed
The picture of the 1968 mock
Republican convention in the Fall/
Winter 2008 issue really brought back
memories. As one of the officers of the
Pennsylvania delegation, I was hurrying to
it from my trailer in Chauncey when my
“unsafe at any speed” Corvair locked
up its brakes on a wet curve on Route
13. The only thing that stopped me from
ending up in the Hocking River was a
bunch of trees that the car wedged into.
Physically, I got only a few cuts, a seat
belt burn, and lots of bumps and bruises.
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T O D A Y
Mentally, however, I must’ve been in
shock because after scrambling up the
embankment, I went right back down
again to save my precious eight-track
tapes before the stupid car would catch
on fire. Also, I thought the policeman who
showed up wouldn’t be able to tell how
fast I’d been going, so I told him it was
the speed limit.
Chauncey’s finest added insult to injury,
because on top of totaling the new car,
I received a ticket for conditional speed
because of the wet road! At least he gave
me a lift into town so I could take part in
the convention. It’s hard to believe it was
over 40 years ago now!
Lee Borgman, BA ’68 Hardy, Va.
Loud not always better
I read with great interest the back page
of the Fall/Winter 2008 issue, for I was a
participant. I had been recruited to play in
a pep-style band for the convention.
As the only sousaphone playing in
said band, I was constantly being urged
by the student director to play louder all
of the convention. A formal symphonic
band concert had been scheduled for the
following Sunday. As a result of all of the
loud playing that I had done on Saturday, I
was able to scarcely sound a note for the
formal band concert!
I came away from this experience
having learned two things: 1) Be in better
shape both physically and musically, and,
2) don’t, don’t ever play that loudly again!
Dale Holshu, BMUS ’71
Marietta, Ohio
Edwards and Bruce Armitage singing our
times — these are just some of the vivid
memories I have of that time. Things
were becoming crazily un-buttoned down
and not altogether collegiate. There was
static in the air, and the times, they were
a changin’.
By the time this convention was
happening on campus, I had “plugged
out” of the sorority/fraternity and J-Prom
scene and was hooking into national civil
rights and anti-war movements. I married
my OU college sweetheart in 1969, and
we bought land in Northern California with
another couple from our Athens days.
We “homesteaded” in that grand backto-the-land movement that embraced so
many college graduates then. Many strong
projects and community organizing grew
out of our efforts — and are still perking
along nicely.
I am blessed to this day to have gone
to Athens in 1964 and left a more sober,
more idealistic, more informed, young
American, challenged by the world and the
possibilities it afforded, the participation
that I could manifest and the change I
could help effect. I was part of something
there. It was, and still is, part of the very
real and deep essence of my life.
Susan Horner Husted Stuart, BA ’68
Santa Cruz, Calif.
Forty years later
Yes, I was in attendance at the mock
Republican Convention in April of 1968. I looked at that picture on the back of
the issue of Ohio Today and wondered
where the last 40 years have gone. I can’t remember much about the
details
of that convention, only to say
Back to basics
that
I
still
have my California delegate
I love the photo on the back cover of
badge with its red ribbon attached. I
the magazine. Attending OU from 1964
guess I just wanted to be involved at a
to 1968 and graduating that spring, I
time when there was so much tension
recognize students in it. There was so
much going on that spring — let’s not just in our country, from the death of Martin
Luther King Jr. only weeks before that
remember the glossy version of events.
mock convention, to the continuing social
Your caption states “hot issues were
unrest caused by the war in Vietnam.
the Vietnam War, international relations
Even before the mock convention, I
and education,” but I hesitate to
struggled as to why I should be supporting
embrace that list, leaving education and
Richard Nixon and the Republican Party,
international relations on the far back
burner. The National Guard patrolling Court and in the weeks that followed, I became
a supporter of Bobby Kennedy. As the
and Union streets in jeeps with machine
school year was coming to a close, I
guns quite visible, the demonstration
signed up to go with a group to Indiana
at President Alden’s home, the antito support Kennedy and pass out
war protests, closing campus early for
literature. I’ll never forget coming down
spring break because of a union strike,
into the lounge in Perkins Hall that morning
the Psychedelic Lighthouse, Jonathan
Materials Laboratory at Wright-Patterson
Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio.
One month after the publication of
The article brought back fond
the Fall/Winter 2008 issue, Assistant
memories of my employment at SRL.
Professor of Photojournalism Pete
Even though it was a corporation, you
Souza (whose image of President
were treated like a part of one very
Barack Obama appeared on the
large family. During the Christmas holiday
cover) was named the official White
season, Dr. Russ would tour all the
House photographer for the Obama
employee locations at Wright-Patterson to
administration. On extended leave from
personally shake each employee’s hand
his teaching duties at Ohio University,
and to wish them happy holidays.
Souza continues to make history: He
One year, Dr. Russ was making his
is the first photographer to shoot the
holiday greeting round, and he was
president’s official portrait digitally.
wearing on his jacket lapel a plastic,
smiling Santa Claus brooch. As he
To read more about Souza’s appointment,
greeted you, he would pull on a cord
visit www.ohio.edu/ohiotoday.
dangling from the Santa Claus face,
and the face would brightly light up from
in-a-lifetime chance for the university to
to hear that Kennedy had been shot and
a battery and a light bulb inside the
restructure courses.” Maybe once in the
killed. Obviously, our trip was canceled.
brooch. He really enjoyed that gadget.
lifetime of some people, but certainly at
The spring of 1968 was a tough
Someone in our work group (there were
least twice in the lifetimes of some of
quarter to be in school; the death of
eight of us) thought that it would really be
King and Kennedy, along with the historic the rest of us. I guess what goes around
cute if we could locate and purchase the
comes around.
flood of the Hocking with its muddy
same gadget. We each purchased one
Gene Maeroff, BSJ ’61 and gathered in the hallway the following
water rushing through the East Green,
Edison, N.J. year, and as Dr. Russ and his entourage
changed a lot of us as students. And yet,
after 40 years, it is a bit ironic that we
rounded the corner, we all started flashing
as a nation have finally embraced what
our Santa Claus brooches. Everyone had
A presidential couple
Martin and Bobby were fighting for with
a great laugh with that!
The profile about Wayne Adams (BFA
respect to human and civil rights and
The passing of SRL as a company
’52) in Ohio Today’s Fall/Winter 2008
have now elected a man of color as our
was a sad period of time for many,
issue brought back memories of John
president. I hope the passing years have and Elizabeth Baker, who were possibly
many people; sadder yet was the loss
taught us it doesn’t matter whether you
the most gracious and caring presidential of this wonderful, kind and gentle man.
are a Republican or a Democrat, black
The “Russ Legacy” continues for me
team OU has ever had. They are never
or white; peaceful political activism can
personally, and many others, as I am
far from my thoughts.
lead to change. currently employed at Universal Energy
I would often see President Baker
Now, if we could only figure out how to strolling about campus greeting students.
Systems Inc., a company that was
end the wars that we continue to seek. I As a freshman, I was invited to their home founded by a former scientist at SRL.
hope it doesn’t take another 40 years — on Park Place for a reception honoring highThanks so much for the insightful
but it probably will.
article,
and thanks for allowing me to
achieving students. For me, as an Athens
Ron Moss, BBA ’71 boy on scholarship, it was a signal honor. share my story.
Canton, Ohio
Scott Apt, BFA ’81
I apologize for my scrawl in this letter.
Dayton, Ohio
Because I was in the arts section at
Athens High School, neither I nor the
Change — but for whom?
other boys were encouraged to learn to
The question-and-answer article (Fall/
Winter 2008) about the university altering type. A pity. Virtually my whole working
career was in programming, systems and Ohio Today welcomes letters from readers.
its academic calendar from quarters to
management of computers. I hunted and
semesters and the advantages cited
We reserve the right to edit for grammar,
pecked my way through 23 years!
for doing so sounded a familiar theme.
space, clarity, style and civility. Please
Robert Bigley, BA ’54 include your Ohio University affiliation,
When I was an education reporter for The
Cincinnati, Ohio address and a daytime telephone number.
Plain Dealer in the 1960s, Vernon Alden,
then the president of Ohio University, told
Here are some ways to share your letters
me in an interview that he was changing The Russ legacy lives on
with us:
the calendar from semesters to quarters
I was thrilled by the Fall/Winter 2008
•Send e-mail to [email protected]
because it would get faculty members to issue featuring the story of Fritz and
•Address mail to:
restructure their courses to conform to
Dolores Russ (“The Russ Legacy: Built
Ohio Today, Scott Quad 173,
the new arrangement.
to Last”). I am a former employee of
Ohio University
Now, I read that Ohio is going back in
Athens, Ohio 45701-2979
Systems Research Laboratory and
the other direction because it “is a once•Fax letters to 740-593-1887
worked on a contract at the U.S. Air Force
The rest of the story
Pete Souza
page photo of the 1968 mock Republican
convention caught my eye. Was I in
attendance, you ask? As a proud but
bewildered delegate from one of the
Dakotas, hell yes, I was in attendance,
sport coat, tie and all. Bewildered,
because I have no idea how I, as a
staunch progressive, left-wing liberal
ended up being a delegate from one of
the Dakotas and supporting Tricky Dick
Nixon. To this day, I still haven’t figured
that one out. Somewhere, though, I still
have the “Nixon for President” pin I wore
as we marched around Grover Center.
But what really struck me from the
photo is that for a bunch of dopesmoking, hippie radicals and outside
agitators (as college students of that
era were commonly portrayed in the
media), we were really a pretty cleancut and well-dressed bunch. But then
again, we mustn’t forget that it was a
mock Republican convention.
So what do I really remember about the
convention? We were a bunch of young,
naive, starry-eyed kids playing an adult
game in Grover Center. When the day was
over, we drifted back to our dorms or to
the Lantern or the Union for a (legal) 3.2
beer (or two), and the next day we were
back to being students again. The bigger political eye-opener for
me occurred later that summer at a
real convention in Chicago, when I
watched TV with both fascination and
horror as the Chicago police bashed in
the heads of real hippies (and anyone
else standing nearby) with such malice
outside the Democratic convention. That was the evening when some of
my naiveté, just like Elvis later on, left
the arena.
Steven Mills, BA ’70
Hilliard, Ohio
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