June 30, 2016

Iowa’s Only President

Deuth,-Dave-colorBy David W. Deuth, CFSP
President, Weerts Funeral Home

Not far from one of the busier freeways in the Midwest lies a quiet and unassuming homage of tremendous national significance. And it’s right in our own backyard. It also serves as a poignant reminder that a person’s true legacy may not actually be the same as that for which he is otherwise
best-known.

From the grounds of the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum in nearby West Branch, Iowa, you can hear the persistent hum of the freeway traffic which defines the I-80 corridor we’re so familiar with today…but spend a little time here and you’re quickly transported back in time to another era.

The simple two-room house in which our nation’s 31st president was born still stands; by any measure, it is smaller than a single-car garage. The simplicity in his Quaker upbringing is evident in the buildings and setting that have been carefully maintained, including the church house where they worshipped.

Orphaned at the age of 8 following the death of both of his parents, young “Bert,” as he was known at that time, was brought up by other relatives, including a fairly stern aunt and uncle in Oregon who taught him the importance of education and a strong work ethic. At 17, he was enrolled in Stanford with an interest in engineering. Here he met and married Louise Henry, a native of Waterloo, Iowa.

Hoover’s keen mind, strong work ethic and Stanford education led him to notable early successes in the mining industry, yielding considerable prosperity and wealth. Most would continue upon such a track of success. And they would be justified in doing so.

Not so, this Herbert Hoover.

When World War I broke out, it was Hoover who helped to organize an effort that would bring tens of thousands of Americans back home to the United States from Europe. He began to set aside his work and corporate interests to embark upon meaningful public service – much of which centered on the distribution of food to areas of the world impoverished by effects of the War. This led to his appointment by President Woodrow Wilson to head the U.S. Food Administration in 1917. The numbers of those he helped to feed – and likely saved from otherwise certain starvation – count well into the millions.

Elected to the Presidency by a landslide in the 1928 election, Hoover took office early in 1929 to much public fanfare. Prior to this, he had shared with his Presidential predecessor, Calvin Coolidge, his concerns over the stock market and an impending market collapse. In a fateful turn of unpoetic justice, Hoover was in only the 8th month of his Presidency when the crash he had predicted occurred. And the subsequent sword upon which he fell has slashed him mercilessly since.

Indeed, ask most any American today what is remembered most about Herbert Hoover, and invariably the stock market crash and the Great Depression will be part, if not all, of the response. Virtually no one mentions Hoover’s extensive humanitarian efforts – or the fact that he actually redistributed 100 percent of his presidential salary to charities throughout the entirety of his presidency.

And so it seems to me, having taken the time to visit the Presidential Museum of Iowa’s only President that, while Hoover is best-known for being the President when the stock market crashed in 1929 and into the beginnings of the Great Depression, his little understood lasting legacy is really one of true humanitarianism and public service for the greater good of all mankind. Few would be truly qualified to make a similar statement.

Over the years, I’ve tried to instill into my kids and co-workers that what you do when people are watching determines your reputation….and what you do when no one is watching determines your character.

History has been quite unkind to Hoover. That may be his reputation. But his character tells the rest of the story. And it bears repeating.

Remember Well.


David W. Deuth, CFSP, is a funeral director and is the owner of Weerts Funeral Home in Davenport and RiverBend Cremation and Quad Cities Pet Cremation in Bettendorf. He can be reached at 563.424.7055 or by email at Dave@WeertsFH.com.

Filed Under: History

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