‘AN AMERICAN GIANT’

"Features"

01/24/2006

Hundreds gather at Eugene McCarthy’s alma mater to honor the man who ‘stood apart in the Senate.’

BY BILL SALISBURY
Pioneer Press

COLLEGEVILLE, Minn. — Eugene J. McCarthy was praised at his alma mater here Monday as a senator and author, poet and professor who challenged a president, prompted a nation to question the morality of the Vietnam War and, in the words of eulogist Al Eisele, “showed it was possible for one man to make a difference.”

Hundreds of the now-graying anti-war activists he once inspired and longtime friends from St. John’s University, from which he graduated in 1935, gathered at the school’s magnificent Abbey Church for a memorial Mass to honor McCarthy, who died Dec. 10 in Washington, D.C., at age 89.

Former Vice President Walter Mondale, who served with McCarthy in the U.S. Senate from 1964 through 1970, called the late senator “an American giant.”

“Gene stood apart in the Senate,” Mondale said, “brilliant, witty, informed, ethical and progressive with, as someone put it, the most unusual mind ever known in politics.”

While the two of them worked together to pass civil rights and anti-poverty legislation, Mondale praised McCarthy for having the courage to stand up to President Lyndon Johnson when he and most of the rest of the Washington political establishment supported the Vietnam War.

“McCarthy had a spark … that illuminated our nation when no other politician dared tell the truth,” he said. “I was late to follow him, and it haunts me to this day that I did not listen carefully enough to Gene when he was walking alone (against the war).

“I hope that we will honor his memory by following his example of conscience and courage to end wrong and restore the civic renewal we need so today,” he said, sparking an outburst of applause in an otherwise solemn ceremony.
Michael McCarthy, the senator’s son, said that while his father was best known for his 1968 presidential campaign, he really wanted to be remembered for his poetry. He recalled his father telling him that the reason he ran for president was to get to read his poems in public.

“He was a poet who serendipitously wandered into public life,” Michael McCarthy said.

Eugene McCarthy was born March 29, 1916, in Watkins, about 20 miles south of St. John’s. He graduated from St. John’s Preparatory School in 1932 and earned a bachelor’s degree from the university three years later. After teaching in high schools in Minnesota and North Dakota and earning a master’s degree from the University of Minnesota, he returned to St. John’s to teach economics and education from 1940 to 1943. He entered the monastery’s novitiate during his final year there, and he maintained close ties with the university throughout his life.

Starting in 1948, St. Paul voters elected McCarthy to five terms in the U.S. House before he won his first of two terms in the Senate in 1958.

He left the Senate in 1970 to focus on writing, lecturing and teaching.

“Eugene McCarthy changed the course of history,” said journalist Eisele, a McCarthy biographer and former Pioneer Press Washington correspondent. “He helped restore a sense of honesty, integrity and decency to American government and politics, which is a legacy all Minnesotans can be proud of.”

McCarthy had inspired many in the audience to become involved in politics and government for the rest of their lives.
Justin Doyle, a truck driver from nearby St. Joseph Township, said his father introduced him to McCarthy in the 1960s, and in 1968 he was stirred to recruit his fellow students at St. Cloud Technical High School to work on the senator’s presidential campaign.

“Listening to Gene was like reading the Book of Psalms,” Doyle said. “There was nothing he didn’t know something about, and with his Irish wit, he was immensely entertaining.”

John Kaul, a lobbyist from Afton, recalled dropping out of Mankato State University to work on McCarthy’s 1968 campaign.

“I loved his style, his erudition,” Kaul said. “His run for the presidency was not so much about his ego as it was to raise a moral question. … I think he was a great man, and I hope we see his kind again.”

A number of college students born long after McCarthy left the public stage attended the service to show their respect.

Brittany Mrozek, a senior at the nearby College of St. Benedict, said she attended because McCarthy was one of the greatest leaders to emerge from the St. John’s-St. Benedict’s community.

“He made all of us who are going to school here proud,” she said.

St. Paul Memorial

A second memorial Mass for Eugene McCarthy will be at 4 p.m. today at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, where McCarthy taught sociology and economics for two years before being elected to Congress. The public service will be at the Chapel of St. Thomas Aquinas. Monsignor James Habiger, former executive director of the Minnesota Catholic Conference, will be the celebrant. The eulogists will include McCarthy’s daughter, Ellen McCarthy, and former St. Paul Mayor George Latimer.