Read Politics Never Broke His Heart - Washington Secretary of State

GROWING UP
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straight-A student,” one of his teachers recalled. But he never settled for
a “B” in debate. He was always well prepared and tenacious. “John had an
ability to let you know when he was disgusted,” a former opponent said.
“He’d lace his rebuttals with sarcasm. And he had this look in his eye and a
twist to his smile.” 8 Philip S. Land, a Jesuit with a passion for social justice,
helped him polish his style. He had John recite the Gettysburg Address.
“I was impressed that Lincoln was able to say so much in so few words.
Father Phil gave me lots of material on discrimination, and I wrote a speech
about the evil of Jim Crow laws. It was not well received in tournaments
in Seattle or at other schools but it helped shape my attitudes as a lawyer
and my actions when I became an elected official.” * John won the gold
medal at one tournament with a speech defending George S. Patton after
the flamboyant general slapped a GI being treated for battle fatigue. One
of Spellman’s most formidable Jesuit-school debate opponents was a lanky
kid from Gonzaga Prep in Spokane. Tom Foley was destined to become
Speaker of the U.S. House.
John’s academic frustrations revolved around math. An emergency
appendectomy, followed by complications, caused him to miss weeks of
school, including introduction to algebra. He never caught up and invented
his own system, “which is ultimately accurate but slow.” His scores on
scholastic aptitude tests were so high, however, that counselors and his
father gave him a hard time for under-achieving and not following in his
brother’s footsteps.
John and his father had house-clearing arguments. Bart had a temper—“Oh
Lord, horrible,” Mary says—but he never laid a hand on John.
“I think he was afraid he was going to hurt me,” John says. “I shouldn’t
have irritated him the way I did. I think he was worried about me and trying
to keep me in check. I was the one who got in trouble. Nothing like stealing
or being dishonest, but after awhile I was running with a crowd that drank.
That really worried him. At one point he was convinced I was going to end
up an alcoholic.” Mary recalls a similar incident. Home from college one
summer, she returned from an evening on the town with friends to find a
book on her bedspread. It was a cautionary tale about drinking. “It was just
Daddy letting me know I had to be careful. He was a teetotaler toward the
end of his life. He had oodles of liquor around the house (for guests), but
he just wouldn’t drink anymore.”
Bart Spellman jumps out of scrapbooks and yellowed clippings as a case
* Land went on to become an influential voice for human rights, working in Rome and
Washington, D.C. He and Spellman stayed in touch over the years.