DN editor tells his story
In July, Dean Will Norton received the following letter from alumnus Arnold Levin, who has given permission to reprint the letter here.
You zeroed in on the right guy. I am the Arnold J. Levin who was the editor of the Daily Nebraskan in the first semester of the 1936-37 school year. I was followed by my close friend, George Pipal, who unfortunately passed away a couple of years ago while working for "Snoopy," in California. The "Rag" offices were in the basement of Old University Hall, one of the original campus buildings and so decrepit that it was prevented from collapsing by long bolts anchored through the building from wall-to-wall. There were approximately 5,000 students at the time, as I recall.
Upon graduation, I worked for a short time for The World-Herald in Omaha. The Herald had purchased The Bee News and was trying to operate both papers, which didn't work out. About 30 of us lost our jobs at once.
Naively, I had thought that the press would be looking for me. Oddly, despite my college record, including a Phi Beta Kappa Key, they weren't. By the time that reality sank in, I was quite disappointed. I had supported myself by doing odd jobs for a couple of throwaway newspapers in Omaha and I was prepared to return to my hometown, Rosalie, and start the job search anew. Then the editor of The Lincoln Star, Jimmy Lawrence, called. I had known him by taking a class from him when he taught journalism at the university. He had an opening on his staff and would I be interested? "Mr. Lawrence," I said, "I'll be there tomorrow."
So I went to work at The Star for $18 per week. It was a seven-day-a-week job, covering noon lunch clubs, Sunday sermons and assisting the night reporter on fire and police alarms. In three years, Mr. Lawrence moved me to city hall, the county courthouse, the state capitol and even writing short editorials. It was the greatest training a cub reporter could receive.
My ambition was to be a foreign correspondent for the Associated Press. So when an opening occurred at the AP Bureau in Des Moines, I jumped at it and was selected to be night editor. That's where I learned tight writing. I still recall once filing a 300-word story over the main or "A" wire and the Bureau later receiving a copy from New York with three words circled and a note, "The circled words are superfluous," signed BP - by Byron Price, national news editor who became national censor during World War II.
World War II ended my AP days in Des Moines. In May of 1942 I went into the Army and spent most of the rest of the war as a forward control officer for ammunition and gasoline supplies for a tank unit. If there is such a thing as a good war, I guess mine was in that category. I went from Utah Beach in Normandy to Pilsen, Czechoslovakia, along the way collecting one battlefield promotion (from second lieutenant to first lieutenant), three battle stars and a Bronze Star, and I didn't get hurt.
In December 1945, I returned to civilian life and the AP sent me to Detroit, where the General Motors strike was in progress. Then they asked me to go to Lansing to help cover a special legislative session. Next, The Detroit News offered me a job in the Lansing bureau and I took it. Great job, during which I met a public relations assistant in the State Highway Department, and in 1949 Lois Elaine Martin and I married.
One of the highlights of that time with The News was covering Democratic gubernatorial campaigns. In those days, relations between reporters and candidates were usually friendly, and urged by my state editor's suggestion that I "shake up" the Republicans, I began giving G. Mennan Williams, the Democratic candidate for governor, items for his speeches. One was about a bridge across the Straits of Mackinaw, connecting the two peninsulas of Michigan. I suggested he appoint a commission to determine the feasibility of bridging the straits. After his election, the commission was appointed, it found a bridge possible, and the bridge was built.
In 1951, beguiled by an offer of doubling my salary and a potential of a place with General Motors Public Relations in a couple of years, I became public relations director of the Republican Party of Michigan. This had its high spots and its low spots, but it was interesting. Part of my responsibility included writing speeches for the state chairman and other party figures, and developing relationships with Gerald Ford, then a congressman from Michigan, among others. With two young state senators, William Milliken and Stan Thayer, I helped organize what became known as the "moderate movement" which resulted in George Romney being elected governor and Milliken succeeding him when Romney joined Nixon's cabinet in Washington. That was a productive and satisfying time.
After Gen. Eisenhower was nominated by the GOP, the man for whom I worked, Arthur Summerfield, national committee man for Michigan, asked me to do a first speech for the general, I handed over a masterpiece and later, when it had gone through the professional speech writers, I recognized two words from my original - an "a" and an "and."
During that period, Panhandle Eastern Pipeline Company, the natural gas supplier for Michigan, was in a feud with the local gas utility in Detroit and felt the need to open a legislative and political office in Lansing. I was eager to leave the political world, and when the job was offered to me, I accepted. In a couple of years, the feud between these gas giants was settled and Panhandle moved me to Washington in the summer of 1963, and I later became head of the Washington office. During this period of time I followed and advised on legislation and operations, working closely with members of Congress and their staffs.
During my Washington time, I wrote a number of political speeches -- interestingly, for both Republicans and Democrats. As a newspaperman, I had a highly developed sense of non-partisanship and the willingness to see both sides of an argument. This was very helpful in my dealings with the press and with members of Congress. One Senate committee counsel, who had a reputation as difficult to deal with, once told a mutual acquaintance that I was his "honest lobbyist." After experiencing the privilege and pleasure of observing Washington during a most interesting period in our country's history, I retired Jan. 1, 1986.
In the meantime, my wife and I are enjoying our three adult children and five grandchildren, and lately I have been fighting the ravages of old age, including a recent stroke.
My roots in Nebraska go back to Rosalie, in my day a community of 200 people or fewer, depending on who was doing the counting, in Thurston County on the Omaha Indian Reservation. My father settled there to operate a farmers' supply business.
I went through the Rosalie Public School System, even earning a letter in football in 1931, and graduated in 1933. As to the football, my class had 16 boys and four girls, and everyone who joined the team was awarded a letter. As I recall, the coach sent me into a game or two when the end was a foregone conclusion.
Thanks very much for the copy of the Little Bighorn publication. I enjoyed it very much and thought it an excellent work.
Hope I have not run on too long. My wife tries to control my verbosity, sometimes ineffectually.
Sincerely,
Arnold J. Levin
