Noting a transition -- Tom Byrne

Today’s DPP mentions the death last night of Thomas Byrne. While they did publish it as a news obit, they apparently did not think the death of a former mayor was important enough to be placed on a news page.

That may be because in many ways Tom Byrne must have seemed to younger people at the paper as remnant to a day long gone [it is almost 39 years since he left the third floor of City Hall], when the city was used to having leaders who were Irish and Catholic and when the city and its news were important enough for the newspaper to cover.

Tom Byrne was not the last Irish mayor. We have one now. He was not the last Catholic mayor. That designation has to belong to Randy Kelly or Jim Scheibel. [I am sure that somebody knows.] But it seems that somehow there has not been a mayor so Catholic [he had been a seminarian before his military service and he was an archbishop’s brother] or so Irish, so connected with the city’s working and ethnic past. [For the record, I am neither Irish – at least not the green kind – nor am I Catholic.]

I realize that sometimes when we look back, we see things colored a bit, like early, color photographs left in the sun too long distort the colors we see, but it seems to me that the passing of Mayor Byrne in some ways illuminates that an era has changed.

The new Saint Paul has different people living here and different people in leadership. Let us just hope that as we move on the latter is adequate for the former.

RIP 2008

This should have gone up in January, but I have been missing in taking care of details a lot lately.  For most of these people, I

 have more personal observations which I do not feel comfortable placing on a page whose distribution [how ever small it is] I neither know nor control, but I do not feel that their passings in 2008 should go unnoticed and not receive some comment.  [I note that I never met most of them until they were fairly old, so do not have a lot of interesting anecdotes to pass on.]

 

Jurgensen, George S

In an earlier life, George had been president of the Firefighters union.  I first met him probably 20+ years ago when some matter of city policy [I think it was liquor license distribution] was being considered.  He seemed to always show up when matters of importance to the Lexington-Hamline area were involved.  I suspect that sometimes our city’s officialdom considered his persistence a bit of a nuisance but respected his history and his dedication.

Hedman, Roy V.

He was well into his eighties when he lost the lease on his Payne Avenue barber shop, but he did not retire.  He just opened on Arcade instead.  He did haircuts, not stylings, our of barber shops hearkening back to an earlier era, decorated with fishing and hunting posters and nothing frilly.  He also enjoyed ballroom dancing and he adored his grandchildren and got so excited then his first great-grandchild was born that he had to tell it to everybody who came into his shop.

Weddington, Martin O.

When I first met Mr. Weddington he was a community elder in the African American community in Summit University and was involved with Pilgrim Baptist Church.  I never knew him well, but I remember working with him on a couple of city committees of a major political party and never felt the condescending attitude that a younger person often senses in intergenerational situations.  He also served once as a presidential elector.

Neid Sr., Karl G.  He was a legend before I ever met him which was not until the late 1980s when he used to come with his late wife Mary to the Friday bingo games at Wilder Recreation Center at which his son was a caller.  He was probably overshadowed in his later life by his namesake son, but people who were in Hayden Heights and organized labor over the years asserted me, even thirty years ago, that he and his wife were well involved and active in their own right and in fact probably provided the influence to get Karl, jr. his interest in public service and some connections to help him get started.

Salland, Judge Joseph E

He found me guilty.  Stop sign at Chatsworth and Thomas, 1983.  No judge has done that since.  Of course, if I had not had some dumb guy named Sammons as my attorney I might have done better.

Copeland, Elizabeth Ann "Betty

Founder of Minnesota Hugs, she managed to assist the survivors of many natural disasters.  Although largely housebound the last few years she still managed by telephone, email, and other means to cajole the support she needed from other people and from some of our leading corporations.

Donald H Boxmeyer.  I only met him once, but it was clear that we knew many of the same people.  I don’t know how six degrees of separation is supposed to work, but it was more like there was only one degree between me and him.  I have posted about him previously.

Elna Avey

She lived to 103.  I first met her forty years ago when I was in college and her son was my roommate.  She had just returned from her last stint as a missionary nurse in Assam.  Mrs. Avey was the widow of a British Baptist pastor/educator and had also lived in the United Kingdom and British Columbia, but she had spent almost all of her US time in the Como Park neighborhood.  She had worked at Lyngblomsten after returning from Assam and was appointed by several mayors to serve on the Hubert Humphrey Job Corps Neighborhood Advisory Council.  The Job Corps facility in her neighborhood was located on the former site of Bethel Academy of which she was a loyal alumna.  At her funeral, which was held at Central Baptist Church, a rabbi singing the Catholic funeral song, “Eagle’s Wings.”

Schell, Lowell S

I never met Lowell until he was of an age where he could have been called a senior citizen for quite a while.  I gather that he used to be a milkman.  [Younger readers may have to ask their grandparents what one of these was.  It is pretty much an extinct concept now.]  Lowell spent most of his life in the now-defunct congregation last known as Peace United Church of Christ.  I don’t know all that he did there, but I know that he sang tenor in the choir and time as a congregation officer.  He always had a smile and his memorial service filled the Hazel Park Church.

Reagan, Mary Jane

She was previously known as Mary Jane Rachner and is best known for running for offices.  She had a doctorate in education and her first attempts for office were for school board.  She finally won an election late in life and died during her second term as Soil and Water Conservation Commissioner.  For many years she spoke frequently to the City Council about any of several things and may be remembered best for her opposition to David Thune’s ordinance to include gays and lesbians in the city’s Human Rights ordinance.  I really do not know whether she really hated gays and lesbians and actually doubted that she did, but she did not agree with Mr. Thune on this.

In 1988 she ran for the Republican nomination for President of the United States.  By the time of the North Dakota primary, the other candidates had all dropped out in favor of George H.W. Bush and she was the only other candidate left.  She finished second.  In the spring of 1989 she rented a table at a fundraiser at Wilder Recreation Center.  I was working the adjacent table for somebody else.  We both had lousy turnout and I had an opportunity to converse with her for a few hours.  It was interesting.  She seemed pleased that I had referred to her as “Dr. Rachner.”  Apparently not many people did.  But I left thinking that she actually did think that she had almost become president.

 

The similar post for 2007 is here.

Don Boxmeyer

Don Boxmeyer passed away. That is not news now. If you have followed the local media you have read about his history at the DPP and his years as both reporter and columnist, how his health has not been good, and how his burial has been delayed because of a government snafu.

I determined earlier that I would save my eulogies for January of each year and I won’t change that now. But it would not be in order to not point out that although I respected his work and had read his stuff for years and exchanged some emails with him, that I am only aware of actually meeting him once, when I was in line with him at a book signing for Curt Milburn’s The Phalen Corridor. [Before signing, Milburn had to ask Boxmeyer who he was.]

I wrote about Don Boxmeyer last October. As I noted then,

Most of the time it seems it seems the people of whom he writes are people I don’t know or know only a bit, but are on subjects I find interesting and even if I don’t know the people being written about, it seems that I must know several people who do know them.

I was interested in why the DPP had David Hawley writing the story of his death, since Hawley is one of the many people that no longer work there. Joe Kimball’s excellent MinnPost obit seems to tell us .

But the demise of Don Boxmeyer and the fact that the DPP went outside their own small roster of writers reminds us of how little we get for 25 cents these days. I might write more on that later, but this doesn’t seem like the right post.

Requiescat In Pacem

American Dream

Quote for the day:

"It's called the American Dream because you have to be asleep to believe it."
George Carlin

RIP 2007

Saint Paul lost many people in 2007, people whose contributions enriched families, neighborhoods, or the city as a whole. Of course nobody knew them all and I probably knew very few.

But in this post I will mention some who left our city a better place and whom I had the opportunity to meet. Some of these people I did know fairly well, others only casually, but I know that they are people the city misses.

The listing is intended to be chronological and not a ranking of any kind. It is also not a geographically balanced view of the city’s losses since I have not been geographically balanced.

Clara H. B. Hackett. Worked with Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, taught religious education at Lutheran churches on the East Side, taught children art at Wilder Rec Center where she was also a booster and ran “Clara’s Kitchen” at fundraisers. She spent several years on the Payne/Phalen District Five Planning Council Board, including time as Parliamentarian and with the Case-Payne Community Council. She was the WCCO Good Neighbor and a member of the Neighborhood Honor Roll. I remember pushing her wheelchair down to the front at Arlington High School so she could receive the Honor Roll certificate from Mayor Norm Coleman and how excited she was to shake the man’s hand.

June E. Noyes. She was one of the first residents of the Phalen Shores apartment building and was an early resident leader while the residents dealt with an unresponsive landlord who was supposed to be developing the decaying Gillette Hospital West Wing which had become a pigeon preserve ten feet outside their new building. After the landlord was replaced as the developer she continued her vigilance until finally the Minnesota Humanities Center was successfully relocated into the building.

Frank J Rodriguez, sr. His election to the Minnesota House in a special election in 1979 gave the DFL the house majority. A long-time labor man, he faithfully served until somebody more ambitious pushed him out of the way.

Eileen Corry. A long time concerned citizen in the Payne Avenue area who was active in many things, an election judge for decades at Wheelock School, and one who could raise several other people, including some in the major media when something which really concerned her came up. She was an early believer/leader of the Independence Party. You never wanted to ask her about “Triple Creek Ridge.”

Carl E Norberg, jr. An attorney who was legislative aide to Councilmember Jack Christensen and could reliably be seen at political and civic events. I hadn’t seen him or his wife for quite a while, but I remember working with him on DFL things when I was living in Summit-University.

Nick P Mancini. Much eulogized restaurant owner. Many years ago [c. 1985] I went into his Char House with the late Joe Pangal after a Zoning Committee meeting. [Joe was the chairperson of the committee whom I had known since the days when we both lived on Ramsey Hill. I was a District Council president who had just made a case to the committee]. I had been in the place a few times, but I didn’t know Mr. Mancini. But Joe and he knew each other well. They probably talked for about half an hour after we had eaten and I learned a lot about our city’s Italian-American community’s heritage and just who was related to whom. I guess I had been only vaguely aware of the Upper Levee before then.

Lester C Johnson. A member of the Neighborhood Honor Roll, Les [usually accompanied by his late wife Faye] spent several years on the Payne/Phalen District Five Planning Council Board and could be found at almost anything going on which needed volunteers. He especially seemed to like cleanups. With his wife they also helped out at their niece’s CRP which helped troubled teenaged girls become responsible adults.

Florence Tedesco. When Victor Tedesco retired from the City Council, he said that Florence deserved sainthood for putting up with him through all she had. She ended up getting twenty more years of things to put up with.

Ernest Purfeerst. He was bicycling before bicycling was cool. He could be seen at any of a variety of East Side and DFL functions until his house on York was removed to make way for ESNDC’s York-Sims development.

Paul Gilliland. Paul was well lamented when he passed. He was involved in a variety of justice-oriented things, but his role in neighborhood organization is probably what most people remember.

I first saw Paul back in the 1970’s when meetings were beign held around the city to establish the district council system and set the boundaries. I saw him at various things but don’t think I actually met him until about ten years later when I found myself working on lawn signs with him in Marj Ebensteiner’s back yard.

Over the years I came to know Paul in a variety of ways. He was the District Two president when I was the District Five president and we put together the biggest joint cleanup the city had seen. Shortly after when District Two had hired me to be its community organizer, he was my superior. He was still on the D2 board later when shortly before I left work started on what was to become the Phalen Village plan. Later he served on the CIB Committee [including time as chairperson] and even later while I was a board member in D5, he served ably as our interim Executive Director.

Rita Kolodziej. Rita was involved with the Case Payne Community Council and held their seat on the Payne Phalen District Five Planning Council board before returning to work after her husband’s passing.

R.I.P. Paul Wellstone

Five years ago today was the Wellstone plane crash. We will be hearing a lot about him and his wife and daughter in the next few days. And although they aren’t being mentioned much, we might even hear a little about Will McLaughlin, Tom Lapic and Mary McEvoy who went down in the same plane.

I won’t write any special tribute at the moment. There will be plenty of them available elsewhere.. Likely in the next few days I might have a comment on one or more of the tributes I see or what happened in those days five years ago.

What I will post here is something I wrote October 29, 2002 to an out-of –state relative who asked.

Ray, any thoughts you would like to pass on about Wellstone? I never
followed him. But, from the media coverage, it sounds like he was a decent
person whose views I would disagree with most of the time. Of course, his
"goodness" may be inflated by the media who seldom act as critically in the
days following death as they might in the days before. I also think it is
interesting now to watch both parties try to make the most of the situation
and continue the campaign, while pretending to be waiting until after the
funeral stuff is over. Who are they kidding? Anyway, I would be interested
in the insights of my Minnesota political correspondent.

For perspective, the relative is a conservative type who lives in a red state and usually, if not always, votes Republican.

This is excerpted for general relevance, but not otherwise edited, from what I wrote then.

I first met Paul Wellstone 20 years ago when he was making an unsuccessful run for State Auditor and have seen him dozens of time since in large and small groups. I suspect that if I met him again he might recognize me, but I doubt he would recognize me by name, but it is hard to know. He did have an uncanny ability to remember names and faces, but any good politician is able to make you think that he/she knows you even if you have never met.

Paul Wellstone was an orator who could make a dull room come alive and even get the most blasé excited. He seemed to advocate what he believed and believe what he advocated much more than most political types I have known. He was one of those people labeled "liberal" who never seemed to think that looking out for the little guy meant looking out for the unborn, but he came across as somebody who honestly had those convictions. [I have become convinced that most politicians either favor "abortion rights" or "life" not as a matter of personal conscience, but as a matter of political expedience, the choice being determined by where they are, who they are around, and whom they are opposing. If Reagan and the Bushes and Hatch and Helms were/are really pro-life one must wonder why they did/have done so little for the pro-life cause domestically and continued to expand relations with China.]

He voted against letting W go to war in Iraq and many thought that was the end of his career, but polls were showing that the vote had not hurt him.

But I am getting a little sick of hearing about how perfect he was. When the Republicans came back to power in Congress in 1995 and Oklahoma City was bombed [and he was facing reelection in 1996] he voted for the "anti-crime" legislation of the time, creating both "midnight basketball" and a few dozen new federal capital offenses and tried to allay us with the idea that he accepted them both since the first was more important than the latter.

And this year I was relishing an encounter I had with him in 1994. I had raised a parliamentary question about whether [as the chairperson was about to do] it was proper to let our then-mayor, Norm Coleman, speak at our county-unit DFL convention as if he were an officeholder from our party when he had just been elected by running against us. While that matter was being resolved, Wellstone came by to speak.

Since the practice is usually to suspend everything to allow visiting dignitaries of such rank to speak [since they may well be trying to make a couple of dozen such stops a day], he started to speak. As part of his speech, he suggested letting Norm speak since the party needed to have a big tent and maybe Norm would come back inside. Needless to say, I lost that point of order. That Norm Coleman would be running neck-and-neck with him all of this year [although Wellstone had a 6% lead in the last Minnesota poll] seemed to have enough irony to amuse me.

I have known quite a few politicians and only a few that I actually think have served for the basic reason they really thought they could do something good for other people. A lot of others have seemed to think that they could do a lot of good for a lot of people [albeit the ideas of good and which people have varied a lot] while doing good for themselves, but doing good for themselves has seemed to be the first reason. I am not sure if Wellstone was one of the first type or not. He may have been, but I didn't know him well enough to say.

A Bridge in Phalen Park

There is a bridge in Phalen Park just north and east of the picnic pavilion. When it was reopened in 1992, it was dedicated to the memory of the late City Councilmember, Karl Neid, jr.

Today is the fifteenth anniversary of the dedication of that bridge. A plaque on the west side inside announces that and explains a little about Mr. Neid. Hundreds of people cross the bridge every day as the running/walking and bicycle paths that surround the lake pass over it. I doubt if many of them ever notice the plaque, much less read it. And after fifteen years, given varying maturation and migration factors, there are probably quite a few who do not even remember the man for whom the bridge was named. A few may be aware that each year a city employee receives the Karl Neid award.

Maybe one reason that so few people ever look at the plaque is that it sits on the bicycling side of the bridge, so that to read it most people would have to put themselves in harm’s way to read it. And maybe it is just that there are plaques on bridges and other public works everywhere are so omnipresent that we just don’t notice them.

I won’t eulogize Karl Neid, jr. right here right now. If I’m still doing this in May when the anniversary of his passing or on his spring birthday which I don’t know right now, I will likely say a lot more.

But I do wonder how many ever notice that bridge or speculate on how some of our municipal public matters might have turned out differently were he still with us.

And if you get around that bridge sometime soon, take a look.