The Comeback

Coinciding with the recent 100th anniversary of the birth of President Reagan were a flock of documentaries. A life as long, varied and public as President Reagan's will produce sound bites galore. And it did.

There was of course the one about questioning the party affiliations of the surgical team poised to remove a bullet from the president's torso. There was the retort about age and experience to the reporter during the second debate with Democratic candidate Mondale. There was a plea to a foreign leader to file for a demolition permit.

These were all great. Memorable. Historic probably. But there are others, and they can be found in the darndest of places: in obituaries of others who have passed away. And not just the initial Reagan utterance, but the reply from the receiving end. In this case, even better.

Thursday's NYT obituary section carried a lengthy, by-lined news obit, complete with a fairly large photo of R.W. Peterson, an environmentalist who passed away at 94.

The name rang no bells. I almost skipped it because there were others that day that caught my interest, and I was somewhat full of this kind of story. But there's one thing about the print medium saved: you can have it laying around in front of you, and not have it hidden behind electronic retrieval access. Seeing can bring renewed interest.

And the renewed interest paid off. Mr. Person was not only an 'environmentalist' but he also had his hand in developing Dacron at DuPont while being there for 26 years, rising to lead research and development. He was a one term (4 years) governor of Delaware after getting involved in politics through efforts at prison reform. We was selected for Washington work and served with presidents Nixon and Ford.

But it was as president of the National Audobon Society from 1979 to 1985 that Mr. Peterson entered into the Comeback Hall of Fame. This would certainly seem to be the view of the reporter Douglas Martin who unearthed the following tit for tat.

"Mr. Peterson vigorously fought President Ronald Reagan's efforts to weaken enforcement of environmental regulations to help businesses. When Reagan said conservationists would not be happy until the White House was a "bird's nest," Mr. Peterson snapped back that it was already a "cuckoo's nest."

http://www.onofframp.blogspot.com/