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Ronald Reagan’s post-presidency secretary speaks on campus

Peggy Grande, secretary to President Ronald Reagan in his post-presidency years, spoke to the Oklahoma Christian University community last night about how working for a former president changed her life. She recalled Reagan as being diplomatic, authentic, humble, optimistic, humorous and respectful, sharing stories and thoughts from her book “The President Will See You Now.”

Oklahoma Christian history professor Matt McCook said listening to Grande speak on campus about the unique perspective she has on Reagan was a valuable experience for students.

“We can all read in books things about President Reagan, but here’s someone with first-hand experience,” McCook said. “You’re talking to people who don’t just have an academic knowledge of events, they were there. I think it is kind of special to hear directly from a primary source, and they can share some interesting anecdotal things you won’t get in just a typical publication. It’s much more personal.”

According to Grande, the memories she values the most with Reagan were the simple, seemingly insignificant moments they shared.

“Looking back over the years, back when I first started with the president, you would think that the things that stood out in my mind would be all the sensational celebrity-type, black tie events,” Grande said. “Really, when I look back on it, the things that I cherish the most were the ordinary days. We were this unlikely pair of people. I was in my 20s, he was in his 80s, yet we found a great way to work together and to enjoy each other’s company.”

Grande said, during Reagan’s post-presidency years, many people came through his office, not for protocol or diplomatic reasons, but because they wanted to.

“The relationship with him had started in the White House and they wanted it to continue and keep going,” Grande said. “We think about diplomacy sometimes as being a foreign affair or handled by the state department. We think of it as something that’s not for us. Diplomacy Ronald Reagan’s way really looked a lot like relationships, not like rhetoric, and it didn’t look like politics, it looked very personal.”

Grande said although “humble” is not a word that typically comes to mind when describing presidents, Reagan was a man of incredible humility.

“He kept on his desk a sign that said, ‘There is no limit to what a man can do or where he can go if he doesn’t mind who gets the credit,” Reagan said. “That was not just the sign on his desk. That was actually the way he lived his life and expected for those who worked for him to live their lives as well. He exhibited this humility in so many ways with how he lived his life.”

Ronald Reagan was not only recognized for being humble, however. According to Grande, he was also a man of great respect who treated people of different political backgrounds with equal dignity.

“It didn’t matter if you disagreed with him politically,” Grande said. “He believed there was always something that you’d have in common. Even if there were a hundred ways that you disagreed, there’d be at least three ways that you’d agree, and he can use those as the starting point for the foundation for moving forward, for building a better stronger relationship together.”

“He believed we could disagree without being disagreeable. I knew that the flag-waving, Reagan-loving patriots on the right would love this book, but the book’s been featured in some very unlikely places on the left and it’s been interesting because the common idea that they all go back to is, ‘We miss the political civility. We miss the ability to have dialogue that’s not toxic and not hateful on both sides of the aisle.’ He definitely represented that political civility and respect for people who thought a different way than he did.”

Grande said one of the biggest things she learned from her years working for Reagan is that legacy is not something written after death, but something people are writing every day of their life.

“All of us should lead and live as if our legacy depends upon it, because it does,” Grande said. “Ronald Reagan isn’t remembered all of these years later because he’s gone. He’s remembered for how he lived. His legacy was written every day he came through the office and every time he stepped into the world.”

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