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Preface
- Southern Illinois University Press
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Preface Ajew weeks before the end of 1972, I stood alone on a frosty evening at Meigs Field in Chicago waiting for a flight that would take me home to Springfield . Staring at Lake Michigan from the terminal, I failed to notice an individual who rather suddenly had approached and was standing by my side. When I did turn my head, I found myself facing Governor Richard Ogilvie. Having covered the administration of Ogilvie as the Illinois political writer for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, I had become well acquainted with the governor. When he learned that I was heading for Springfield as he was, he convinced me to join him on his flight aboard a state airplane. This came at a time when he was a lame-duck governor, having just lost a bid for reelection. As we soared over the dark, flat Illinois prairie, we chatted informally about his four years in office, rehashing in particular the far-reaching governmental revision that he had choreographed to a backdrop of riots, political scandals, and other turbulence. We pretty much agreed, and I think the word was his, that his period in the Illinois capital was a "wild" one. I remember telling him that I'd bet the Ogilvie era would make a book some day, when it was possible to look back and digest it all. I do not recall his reply, and it was not a subject I dwelled upon. Not until I993. I had just coauthored a book on former governor Dan Walker of Illinois, the individual who brought the Ogilvie governorship to an end. After the Walker book hit the bookstores, several friends and colleagues strongly suggested to me that an Ogilvie book also was in order. As many of them saw it, there was no better governor in a more tempestuous era in modern Illinois history than Ogilvie, a man whose life revolved around an especially gritty sense of leadership. Continued ignoring of Ogilvie by political biographers, they felt, was a grave omission. Consequently, in the spring of 1994, I undertook the writing of this book after obtaining the cooperation of Mrs. Richard Ogilvie and Elizabeth Simer, the Ogilvies' daughter. The many hours I spent interviewing them and working with them to gather background materials for the book were most warm and rewarding. Overall, more than eighty interviews were conducted for the book. ix x PREFACE With few exceptions, those questioned were overly generous with their time. Special thanks also must be accorded certain other persons for assistance on this project. They includeJanice Petterchak, the former director of the Illinois State Historical Library; Mary Michals, curator of the audio·visual collection at the historical library; Christine Henderson, reference librarian at the Illinois State Library; and Judy Stephenson, reference librarian at the United States Army Armor School Library at Fort Knox in Kentucky. The Illinois State Historical Library at Springfield is a repository of many documents tied to Governor Ogilvie and his administration. The Ogilvie papers consist of 126 cubic feet of materials dating for the most part from 1969 through 1972, the years of his governorship. The collection contains papers of and relating to the governor, Dorothy Ogilvie, and the key members of Ogilvie's staff. Much of the governor's file contains correspondence regarding agencies under Ogilvie, reports by department heads, and Ogilvie's appointment books and schedules. Mrs. Ogilvie's file features her speeches and correspondence on two projects to which she devoted considerable time, restoration of the Governor's Mansion and care of the mentally retarded. The files of the governor's aides are quite informative and contain some of the most reflective material on the administration. Assistants contributing to the collection include Brian Whalen, John Dailey, William Hanley, Jay Bryant, and Fred Bird. The single most uniform and consistent record of the administration well may be Bird's file of chronologically arranged press releases, starting with ones during Ogilvie's campaign for governor and running through his final day in office. r also want to note that some material in this book was drawn from my earlier book, Dan Walker: The Glory and the Tragedy. And a much more extensive resource for this book was the collection of my personal notes from my coverage of the Ogilvie administration, an indispensable reference. The Ogilvie era was an exciting time to be reporting on Illinois government and politicS, and I was fortunate to have had the opportunity to be part of the Illinois...