Profiles in
Achievement
BLISS INSTITUTE SERIES
Bliss Institute Series
John C. Green, Editor
William Hershey and Colleagues, Profiles in Achievement: The Gifts, Quirks and Foibles of Ohios Best Politicians
Joy Marsella, Creating a New Civility
William Hershey, Quick & Quotable: Columns from Washington, 1985-1997
Jerry Austin, True Tales from the Campaign Trail: Stories Only Political Consultants Can Tell
Christopher J. Galdieri, Tauna S. Sisco, and Jennifer C. Lucas, editors, Races, Reforms, & Policy: Implications of the 2014 Midterm Elections
Tauna S. Sisco, Jennifer C. Lucas, and Christopher J. Galdieri, editors, Political Communication & Strategy: Consequences of the 2014 Midterm Elections
William L. Hershey and John C. Green, Mr. Chairman: The Life and Times of Ray C. Bliss
Douglas M. Brattebo, Tom Lansford, Jack Covarrubias, and Robert J. Pauly Jr., editors, Culture, Rhetoric, and Voting: The Presidential Election of 2012
Douglas M. Brattebo, Tom Lansford, and Jack Covarrubias, editors,
A Transformation in American National Politics: The Presidential Election of 2012
Daniel J. Coffey, John C. Green, David B. Cohen, and Stephen C. Brooks, Buckeye Battleground: Ohio, Campaigns, and Elections in the Twenty-First Century
Lee Leonard, A Columnists View of Capitol Square: Ohio Politics and Government, 19692005
Abe Zaidan, with John C. Green, Portraits of Power: Ohio and National Politics, 19642000
Profiles in
Achievement
The Gifts, Quirks and Foibles
of Ohios Best Politicians
William Hershey and Colleagues
All new material copyright 2021 by the University of Akron Press
The articles were originally written for the Akron Beacon Journal. USA TODAY NETWORK
All rights reserved First Edition 2021 Manufactured in the United States of America.
All inquiries and permission requests should be addressed to the Publisher, The University of Akron Press, Akron, Ohio 44325-1703.
ISBN: 978-1-62922-137-3 (paper)
ISBN: 978-1-62922-138-0 (ePDF)
ISBN: 978-1-62922-139-7 (ePub)
A catalog record for this title is available from the Library of Congress.
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Cover photo: Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, photograph by Carol M. Highsmith, LC-DIG-highsm-41852 DLC
Cover design: Amy Freels
Cover illustration: Nadia Alnashar
Profiles in Achievement was typeset in Adobe Caslon with Avenir display by Beth Pratt. Profiles in Achievement was printed on sixty-pound natural and bound by Bookmasters of Ashland, Ohio.
To Akron Beacon Journal editors and reporters,
past and present, who have helped readers
understand Ohio politics.
Contents
Director Emeritus, Ray C. Bliss Institute of Applied Politics, University of Akron
Political journalists meet some interesting people.
Bill Hershey and his colleagues at the Akron Beacon Journal certainly did, and moreover, they wrote profiles of many of them. Published between 1980 and 2014, the twenty-eight essays republished here cover a wide variety of leaders who achieved big things in their careers.
The title of this collection, Profiles in Achievement, echoes Profiles in Courage, a book about eight U.S. Senators who stood up for what they believed in the face of intense pressure and criticism. Authored by then-U.S. Senator John F. Kennedy (and ghostwritten by speechwriter Theodore Sorensen), the book established a genre of books about good leaders. It soon inspired Richard Nixons Six Crises (ghostwritten by journalist Charles Lichtenstein), chronicling episodes of leaders in action Nixon witnessedincluding his own loss to Kennedy in the 1960 presidential election. Recent additions to the genre include U.S. Senator Sherrod Browns Desk 88: Eight Progressive Senators Who Changed America and former Ohio Governor John Kasichs Courage is Contagious: Ordinary People Doing Extraordinary Things to Change the Face of America. Some of the best books in this genre were written by journalists, such as David Broders Changing of the Guard: Power and Leadership in America.
Taken as a whole, this genre is an antidote to the popular view that leaders, especially politicians, are self-interested and corrupt. There is, of course, a good bit of truth in this often-overstated conclusion. Indeed, the Beacon Journal writers also profiled poor leaders, often with pre-science. An example is Ohios Larry Householder, who served twice as Speaker of the Ohio House of Representatives. In 2020, his long-recognized lack of ethics resulted in his indictment and arrest on federal racketeering charges. Reporting on these kinds of interesting people is one of the purposes of a free press, but reporting on successful leadership is of equal interest.
Courage is a feature of the high achievers profiled here, both doing the right thing under fire as well as recovering from the burns of defeat and disappointment. Longevity is clearly an important factor: resilience provides the time necessary for major accomplishments. For example, James Rhodes and Vern Riffe set records for time in their respective offices; Jo Ann Davidson and Eddie Davis lifes work broke social barriers and opened the way for the careers of Mary Taylor and Barbara Sykes. The hindsight of experience, the foresight to solve problems, and the insight from building consensus are important features of the people profiled as well.
If political reporting is the first draft of history, then profiles are a second draft. There is an intimacy in these accounts not found in daily reporting. Some profiles sum up a lifetime of achievement, such as Bill Batchelders years in the Ohio legislature and Johnny Apples decades of covering presidential campaigns. In other profiles, there is a sighting of what will eventually be achieved. For example, we encounter George Voinovich as mayor of Cleveland, long before he became Ohios Governor and Senator; we see Maureen OConnor as a local prosecutor on her way to becoming Ohios first female Chief Justice of the Supreme Court; we observe John Glenn as a dogged legislator and Sherrod Brown as an ardent policy advocate.
We also learn about high achievers little known today, such as real estate developer John Galbreath and civil rights leader Sterling Tucker, whose impact is still felt in the fabric of everyday life. We also hear about virtues welcome in a time of contentious politics: Republican Ray Bliss tells us, We should be tolerant of the deeply held convictions of others, while Democrat Louis Stokes reminds us while I admire your love for America, I hope that you will never forget that others, too, love America just as much as you do and that others, too, will die for America, just as quick as you will.
Not even high achievers are perfect, of course. All the profiles reveal interesting quirks and foibles of their subjectssome endearing, some infuriating. But these profiles are more than just celebrations of success: they show that the quest for good leaders is not a fools errand.
This volume is a fine addition to the Bliss Institutes book series with the University of Akron Press, joining Hersheys earlier compilation, Quick & Quotable: Columns from Washington, 19851997
