Victor De Grazia Memoir - University of Illinois Springfield

you start identifying with them; you understand their problems and they
get to how you, of course. And there's that mutual emotional exchange
that occurs. That's why Dan is the most formidable campaigner in the
history of Illinois. And Thompson is damn good, and Thompson will
admit-bor used to admit--that everything he did he learned from Dan
Walker, from watching Dan Walker. Including the way he acts in parades
and everything like that. I really would like to have seen a match up
between those two. (laughs)
Q:
I know, wouldn't we all?
A: 'cause Thompson really is a formidable campaigner.
Q: You know, on the one hand Dan Walker Is a relatively shy man who
. . . no, he is a private man, not comfortable with sort of mindless
cocktail party conversation. But on the other hand he was able to reach
out to people on a one-to-one in a very personal way. He was able to, as
you say, have an incredible presence in a parade, in a situation where he
couldn't have privacy. He could go to the state fair and be an
auctioneer and be a terrific auctioneer. There seems to be a real mix
here in the man. Do you understand what I'm getting at?
A: Yes.
Q: ~e's very private but he's so able to come out of that when it's
necessary. How does that work?
A: I don't know. I know exactly the phenomenon, the two things. Dan
Walker in so many ways is an overachiever. When he was in law school he
of course was editor-in-chief of the law review. And then of course he
organized the National Association of Editors-in-chief of Law Reviews,
and of course he was elected its first president. And it was at its
first meeting that Willard Wirtz--who was then a professor of law at
Northwestern, later became secretary of Labor under Kennedy--Willard
Wirtz said, in introducing Dan, "I want to introduce the guy who someday
will become the governor of Illinois." This is when he was in law
school, right? I mean, there's something abaut his physical presence
that commanded respect.
He's a very private person. I'm sure a lot of it is due to his
background. You know, he was very poor. It's no baloney that he
supplied income to his family by selling vegetables door to door when he
was a kid. Hts father was chief petty officer in the navy. And then Dan
went to Annapolis. He went to Annapolis not through an appointment but
through a fleet exam. Now Annapolis took this poor kid and turned him
into sort of a polished version of a human being. And the polish they
put on him was really I think his first go around, and I think that had
more to do, and has had mare to do, with what people sometimes described
as his standoffishness or his aloofness or his coldness. It really is
that Annapolis veneer put upon a poor kid from California.
Q: It is interesting that be seems to be either described as very cold
or incredibly warm . . .