By DARREN IVY
Alumni News reporter
Allen Beermann
Walking through a Shanghai airport several years ago, Allen Beermann and his wife, Linda, were on their way to a meeting.
The Nebraska natives were talking with each other when, all of a sudden, Allen Beermann, the former Nebraska Secretary of State, ran into someone he knew. It wasn’t a new experience, Linda Beermann said.
Whether it’s halfway around the world or halfway to western Nebraska, Allen Beermann has established many contacts.
“I don’t think we go anywhere where we don’t know somebody,” Linda Beermann said. “It’s almost disappointing if we don’t see someone we know.”
Allen Beermann, who is beginning his fourth year as executive director of the Nebraska Press Association, said people are the reason he served in Nebraska’s State Capitol for 30 years and why he got involved with the Nebraska Press Association upon retirement from his Secretary of State job.
For 30 years — six as a deputy Secretary of State and 24 as the Secretary of State — Beermann made a habit of putting in long days at the Capitol. Then in 1994 he announced he would retire.
Soon thereafter, Beerman received a call from a newspaper publisher asking if he would be interested in the vacant NPA executive director position. “Oh, my goodness,” were the first words out of Beermann’s mouth.
The publisher talked Beermann into applying. Several weeks later, Beermann received a call from the same publisher telling him he was a finalist for the job. After an interview, he was offered the job the same night.
Not bad for someone whose only journalism experience was as a disc jockey at a radio station during his Midland College days. Although he knew little about the newspaper business, Beermann found the job a natural fit. In his job at the Capitol and his job at NPA, Beermann has worked with people and had the good of the community and state in mind, he said.
Plus Beermann already knew most of the newspaper people in the state.
“I knew 75 percent of the publishers on a personal basis from being Secretary of State.” Beerman said. “I left my job at the Capitol on a Thursday and started at the Nebraska Press Association on Friday. If I recall, I think I worked until midnight my last night. So I had an eight-hour retirement.
“I couldn’t be happier with my decision. The newspaper people are very nice and very generous.”
Beermann’s decision to become executive director of the NPA came as no surprise to longtime friend Ralph Englert or to Linda Beermann.
“It was an excellent match for him,” said Linda Beermann, who was an anchorwoman with KLIN/KGIN for more than 20 years. “It was fortunate circumstances.”
One drawback to the new job is that Allen Beermann works longer hours that he did in the Capitol.
“I guess there aren’t as many locks (at the NPA) as at the Capitol,” she said.
Though his late nights were limited, Beermann probably didn’t have too many problems talking the guards into letting him enter. When he wasn’t on the floor of the Legislature or in his office, he most likely could be found in a hallway visiting with someone, Linda Beermann said.
Beerman, 59, also visited people outside the Capitol. He traveled extensively for his job, participating in parades, attending meetings overseas and serving on several national committees. Whomever Allen Beermann met, he left a lasting impression on, Linda Beermann said.
“He would always stop, shake hands and talk with everyone,” she said.
Last year, Beermann met a man who still remembered his kindness 28 years before. The man was from Seward and had driven a convertible that Allen Beermann rode in during a 1970 parade.
“He said, ‘You were the only one who wrote me a thank you letter in all these years,’” Beermann said.
Another person whom Beermann left an impression on was Englert, his deputy Secretary of State for 24 years.
“He was energetic, honest, helpful and strict in following the law,” Englert said. “He was respected by everyone.”
Englert is still somewhat surprised that he served all those years in the Capitol. At the time Beermann offered Englert the deputy job, Englert was the Cheyenne County Clerk. Initially, Englert rejected the offer because he was up for reelection
But Beermann was persistent.
“Every time I came up with reasons I wouldn’t, he came back with reasons I could and should,” Englert said.
Beermann’s ability to compromise and communicate with people explains his interest in politics and public service as a career. But he says those skills, along with other people skills he possesses, also are the reason he wishes he’d started in the newspaper business earlier.
“The jobs involve the same work ethic – working too hard and too long,” Beermann joked. “I could have found myself happy in both.”
Dick Palmquist
To a generation of WOWT-TV viewers in the 1950s, Dick Palmquist was Major Action.
Each week Palmquist dressed up in his brown military-like uniform, with a yellow lightning bolt and red, white and blue patch on the chest and antennae on his head and hosted the Stand By Action Show on Channel Six in Omaha. As he tuned the dial on his antennae, a Flash Gordon movie appeared on the screen.
For two years, the show was rated No. 2 in Omaha. Then came the Mickey Mouse Club on another channel, and Major Action was finished.
More than 40 years later, even without the costume, Palmquist is still Major Action to many members of the Nebraska Broadcasters Association. Or maybe Mr. Action would be a better title for him today.
Palmquist, who is in his 10th year as executive director of the Nebraska Broadcasters Association, stays updated on issues concerning broadcasters and organizes actions accordingly. He uses his experiences in various facets of the broadcast industry to help him relate to all members of the Nebraska Broadcasters Association and stand up for them in the Nebraska Legislature and U.S. Congress.
Currently, Palmquist and the NBA are asking the Legislature to give stations a one-time sales tax exemption on purchases of new digital video equipment. The federal government has mandated that all television stations must use digital equipment by 2006. But digital equipment isn’t cheap, and it can put a burden on the smaller stations, Palmquist said.
Lobbying is just a part of his job, Palmquist said. He also organizes meetings, visits with general managers of radio and television stations and plans conferences.
But to members of the Nebraska Broadcasters Association, Palmquist’s lobbying work means the most, said Phyllis Ned, general manager of KETV in Omaha.
“He keeps up on all the issues that affect the industry,” said Ned, who is on the Nebraska Broadcasters Association board of directors. “He’s been a godsend to the industry in terms of getting things done. He understands the problems stations face. I can’t say enough about him.
“I’ve worked with a lot of executive directors, and he’s one of the best. He’s a take-charge person. We don’t have to worry about anything.”
Former Nebraska Sen. Jim Exon must have felt the same way about Palmquist. In 1997, Exon asked Palmquist to help organize the appearance of several speakers at a key hearing on the Telecommunications Bill in Washington, D.C.
Palmquist was up to the challenge. He recruited Howard Schrier of Omaha’s KPTM to speak to members of the Senate. Palmquist and Schrier can take satisfaction in the fact that the Telecommunications Bill passed later that year.
Exceptional organizational skills are the key to Palmquist’s leadership ability, said Ned and longtime friend John Webster.
“He’s a very organized individual, who is not afraid to move forward,” said Webster, the owner of Omaha’s KEFM radio station and a former president of the Nebraska Broadcasters Association. “Prior to Dick, there was a certain degree of chaos. He took a lot of work off the president’s back.”
Palmquist’s organizational skills and have-fun-while-you-work approach have been constant in all his endeavors.
As a college student at the University of Nebraska-Omaha, Palmquist worked at WOWT. He was on the air for several years before taking a job in broadcast sales. Then he switched careers again and managed radio stations for several years. After radio, he was off to Milwaukee where he ran his own advertising agency for 15 years.
Ten years ago, Palmquist came back to Omaha with his wife, Annabelle, and became director of the Nebraska Broadcasters Association. The job has turned out to be a perfect match.
“I love the whole broadcast business,” Palmquist said. “All of the people are genuinely nice.”