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| Ken Hechler |
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| Jack Buechner |
Thousands of students on college campuses throughout the country are getting a rare opportunity to interact with former members of the U.S. Congress through a program designed to attract young people to public service leadership. On Tuesday, Nov. 18, Jack Buechner and Ken Hechler will speak during a free, public lecture at the McCoy Meetin' House on the Parkville Campus as part of the Congress to Campus program. The event begins at 7 p.m. and is sponsored by faculty and majors in Park's Department of Social Sciences.
Buechner served the 2nd District of Missouri in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1987-91 and is the current president of the U.S. Association of Former Members of Congress, and Hechler served West Virginia as a member of the U.S. House from 1959-77 and was the secretary of state in West Virginia from 1985-2001.
Concerns about the lack of civic literacy among America's young people and declining participation in politics and voting -- even among college-educated young adults -- are being addressed by the Congress to Campus program, which brings students into contact with former members who share their insights and experiences. Students are challenged to become involved in the legislative process and learn about the value of public service from men and women who have served in Congress.
The U.S. Association of Former Members of Congress created the Congress to Campus program in an effort to improve college students' understanding of Congress and American government, and to encourage them to consider careers in public service. The program sends bipartisan pairs of former members of Congress -- one Democrat and one Republican -- to visit colleges and universities around the country.
The Congress to Campus program provides a distinctive, powerful and personal means to educate the next generation about American government, politics and public affairs. The former Congressmen provide students with insights into the realities of American democracy through sharing their real-life experiences as candidates and office holders. They also deliver an important message about bipartisan cooperation.
Buechner graduated from Benedictine College in Atchison, Kan., before earning his jurist doctorate from St. Louis University. Buechner has spent the bulk of his professional life participating at the executive level of numerous nonprofit and nongovernment organizations. He was the president and CEO of Presidential Classroom, an education program for gifted high school students. After leaving Congress in 1991, he served as the president of the International Republican Institute (IRI), an organization that provides training in civic education, political party building, communications, strategy and the electoral processes in emerging democracies throughout the developing world. During his stint as IRI president, Buechner was responsible for opening new offices in six countries and developing working programs and strategies on democracy and free market economics in 28 other countries.
Buechner has been a partner with the law firm of Manatt, Phelps and Phillips for seven years, representing domestic and international clients before Congressional hearings. He has also worked for and represented the Bush campaigns, departments of the Executive Branch and other independent agencies, nongovernmental organizations and nonprofit organizations. He has advised multiple U.S. ambassadors and advised policy for corporate executives. As a civil servant, Buechner not only represented the 2nd Congressional District of Missouri, but he also served as a Missouri Tourism Commissioner and a member of the Advisory Board of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. He still serves on the boards of the Center for National Policy and the Council for a Community of Democracies.
Hechler was born in a time of conflict and has been defined throughout his life by conflict. Although he was raised in an active Republican family, he became one of the most active Democratic politicians in both state and national government. In 1942 he was drafted into the U.S. Army officer corps after proving himself as a student of history and government at Swarthmore (Pa.) College, where he received his bachelor’s degree and Columbia University where he received his doctorate in political science. He has taught at Columbia University, Princeton University, Barnard College and Marshall University. He served in the European Theater of Operations as a combat historian and personally interviewed Nazi officials such as Hermann Goering, Admiral Doenitz and Joachim von Ribbentrop. He also interviewed numerous American and German military personnel after the war that gave him intimate knowledge of the combat actions at the Ludendorff Bridge crossing into Germany, writing the book The Bridge at Remagen, which was adapted into a well-received film of the same title in 1969.
Hechler moved in to politics immediately after World War II. He served President Truman from 1949 to 1953 as a speechwriter. After his service to Truman, Hechler accepted the position of associate director of the American Political Science Association before becoming the research director for Adlai Stevenson's 1956 political campaign. Hechler removed himself from the shadow of others when he ran for, and won, West Virginia's 4th Congressional District. Despite his Republican upbringing, Hechler was quickly viewed as an extreme liberal, and he broke the Democratic political machines that had dominated the coal mines of his district through staunch support of organized labor. He was the leading figure in the passing of the Coal Mine Safety and Health Act of 1969 and succeeded in being re-elected to his position eight times due to his support of the working man and his participation in the civil rights movement.
In 1965, Hechler marched with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in Selma, Ala. – the only member of Congress to do so. His lock on the 4th District of West Virginia was broken in 1972, and he lost a campaign to become governor. He refused to give up, running for the West Virginian Secretary of State seat in 1984 and winning easily, remaining in the position until 2001.
