Remembering Lugar

Remembering Lugar

Beta Says Goodbye to One of America’s Greatest Statesmen

By L. Martin Cobb, Eastern Kentucky ’96

September 2, 2015, Lugar awaits backstage at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia before a speech on nuclear arms. At his memorial service in Indianapolis on May 15, Lugar was eulogized by his four sons, as well as U.S. Vice President Mike Pence (R), Fiji; Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R), Phi Kappa Tau; Former Senator Sam Nunn (D), Phi Delta Theta; and Purdue University President and Former Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels (R), Fiji.

“A man of matchless honesty and integrity, and perhaps the Senate’s leading intellect.” – Ronald Reagan, 40th President of the United States

In the fall of 1950, a genteel young man from Indianapolis broke with family tradition and crossed the Ohio state line to attend Denison University. Seventy years later, Richard Lugar is remembered for his Hoosier humility and gentlemanly approach to influencing the world he cared for.

An Eagle Scout, pianist and high school valedictorian, little seemed impossible for the overachieving Lugar – despite the fact he wasn’t offered a Beta bid the first time he rushed the Alpha Eta Chapter and lost his first run for the U.S. Senate.

But, this student body co-president (alongside Sweetheart Charlene Smeltzer) became Denison’s first Rhodes Scholar, as well as a Navy intelligence officer. Today, the name Lugar is synonymous with “a true statesman” and “foreign policy giant.”

Ranking as the 19th-longest serving U.S. Senator given his 36-year career, Lugar’s lifetime was marked by high points upon high points.

Elected to the local board of education in his early 30s, he oversaw school desegregation as its vice president and became the first Republican in 20 years elected mayor of Indianapolis. Spearheading the city’s urban renewal, he laid the foundation for Indy’s economic efficiency and high-profile sports culture.

One of the Senate’s most analytical and studious workhorses, he was admired for his bipartisanship. Two-time chairman of the powerful Foreign Relations Committee, his national influence even inspired Congressional Quarterly to coin him the “shadow Secretary of State.” Achieving meaningful public policy was always more important than rigid ideologies, pounding the table or blow-hard rhetoric focused on the next election or media cycle. Civility mattered to Lugar. Always.

High-mindedness and a cooperative posture paved the way for his signature legislative achievement, the 1991 Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction Program that deactivated thousands of Russian nuclear warheads aimed at the U.S., ballistic missiles and tons of chemical weapons agent. Fittingly, it bears the name of Democrat Sam Nunn, Phi Delta Theta, who remarked upon Lugar’s passing, “Our nation has lost an extraordinary statesman who made the world a safer and better place. I have lost a wonderful friend and trusted partner.”

Lugar’s even-keeled approach to politics gave rise to the esteem in which the public held him. Gracious, approachable and modest to a fault, like Indiana limestone, his name is deeply emblazoned in American history: multiple Nobel Peace Prize nominations, Presidential Medal of Freedom, candidate for President of the United States, to name a few.

Of course, it’s his 20-year role as spokesman of the Men of Principle initiative and attendance at 23 General Conventions that cements his name in Beta lore. Mesmerizing audiences with stories of world diplomacy, yet never using written notes, he often threw out the “Lugar Boomerang” by deploying a variety of anecdotes designed to reach the masses and help them understand an important point he sought to make for the Fraternity he loved.

For his inspiring example, Beta presented him with the Oxford Cup and Shepardson Award in 1989 and 2005, respectively. In 2012, the Fraternity designated all future General Convention delegates as “Lugar Fellows” – a nod to their youthful legislative efforts and his hallmark career.

Like the motto of the Union Literary Society that gave birth to Beta Theta Pi in 1839, “Cooperation Makes Strength” embodied the heart and soul of one of America’s greatest statesmen: Richard Green Lugar, Denison ’54. To most, he was a political leader. To others, as was titled in a recent PBS/NPR documentary, he was “Reason’s Quiet Warrior.” To Betas everywhere, he was simply “Brother Lugar.”

Lugar is survived by his wife, Char; sons Mark, Bob, John, Indiana ’85, and David, Indiana ’87; 13 grandchildren and 17 great-grandchildren. The Lugar Center he built following conclusion of his Senate career in 2013 stands as an influential Washington think-tank that continues his life’s work: nonproliferation, global food security and bipartisan governance.