Locals Remember Meeting President Reagan

Before Ronald Reagan was a president or a governor of California, he was a B movie actor trying to get into politics.

That's when Dave Laske of Niles, a former educator and state government official, met him.  The year was 1964; the place, Republican headquarters in LaJolla, California.

As the nation celebrates the 100th anniversary of Reagan's birth Sunday, Laske, as well as Bob Dudycz, another Niles resident who's been active in Republican politics, recalled the times they met or saw him in person. 

"What you see is what you got," said Laske. "In person, he had the same relaxed approach to life and great communication skills as on TV. 

"This guy had it. He was tops."

That first time Laske, who served as the executive director of the Illinois House-Senate Committee on Medicaid Fraud, met Reagan in August 1964, he and his brother, who lived in San Diego, were working on the campaign of Barry Goldwater, another conservative politician. Reagan happened to stop by GOP offices to talk to the 25 or so people there, including the Laskes.

"I had always liked him from the movies," Laske said. "He always seemed genuine. I never had a negative feeling about him."

Reagan became governor of California on Jan. 1, 1967, and the next time Laske met him was at a party in honor of President Nixon's Jan. 20, 1969 inauguration.

While other politicians secluded themselves in private areas of the hotel party, the Reagans stood outside their private area speaking with anyone who wanted to talk to them.

"There were people lined up to see them, and they would shake hands and say, 'where are you from?' He was a good politician. I told him I'd met him back in 1964," Laske recalled.

Laske ranks Reagan among the top four presidents in history--along with Washington, Hayes and Eisenhower, because he did the most, in Laske's judgment, to protect the Constitution.

He sees Reagan's returning the nation to conservative values, addressing the nation's economic troubles of the time and setting the Soviets on a path to their own destruction as the 40th president's major acomplishments.

Bob Dudycz, a Republican who served as Maine Township Supervisor from 2000-2007 and was campaign manager for his brother, Republican former state senator Walter Dudycz, regards Reagan as a hero largely for his role in unraveling the Soviet Union.

"I was born in a displaced persons camp," Dudycz said, explaining his Ukrainian parents wound up in the camp because they couldn't return to their homeland after World War II ended. 

"Americans who came from totalitarian countries flocked to him because he knew what the Soviet Union really represented," Dudycz said.

He credits Reagan with leading the United States into bankrupting the Soviet Union, recalling the photos of people in Soviet-dominated countries standing in lines for meager food supplies. 

Reagan proposed the "Star Wars" program to technologically shield the U.S. from Soviet attack, and launched a military spending program, forcing the Soviets to buy military hardware at a pace they couldn't afford, Dudycz recalled.

"There was his famous, 'Mr. Gorbachev, tear down that wall,' statement. History will prove that being the catalyst for the breakup of the Soviet Union was his single greatest achievement," Dudycz said.

He also credits Reagan with breaking up the stagflation of the late 1970s, when a combination of inflation and double-digit unemployment had pushed home mortgage rates well into the teens.

Dudycz saw Reagan speak in person at a banquet hall on Chicago's South Side in 1983. 

"When he spoke, you had the impression he was speaking directly to you. He exuded confidence and calm.  And he had strength of character," the Niles resident recalled.

In person, Reagan projected the same warmth and personable quality that came across on the television screen, he said.

"When he communicated, he touched people. He was believable," Dudycz added. "When he said 'I will take care of that,' people trusted him."