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Oval Office Jelly Beans…tribute to former Indiana Governor Otis Bowen

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Stock Photos Bowl of Coloured Jellybeans © Glow Images
Stock Photos Bowl of Coloured Jellybeans © Glow Images


Thanks to Dave Horn, former Indiana Committee on Publication, Raleigh, North Carolina, for today’s blog.

News of the passing of former Indiana Governor Otis Bowen at age 95 wakened sweet memories, and recalled some words by Mary Baker Eddy, founder of The Christian Science Monitor, that could have described the “Doc.”

Bowen began his career on an internship from Memorial Hospital in South Bend, Indiana, in 1942. From 1943 to 1946 he served in the Medical Corps of the United States Army, rising from the rank of 1st lieutenant to captain. On his return from World War II, he set up medical practice in his home town of Bremen, Indiana, where he treatedboth “English” and Amish residents and delivered a generation of babies. Bremen’s Bowen Babies grew into solid citizens and many remained friends for life.

Doc began his pubic service career as Marshall County Coroner. He served as a member of the Indiana House of Representatives from 1956 to 1958 and again from 1960 to 1972. He was speaker from 1967 to 1972. He was elected Governor in 1972 and re-elected for a second term in 1976, making him the first Governor to serve for eight consecutive years in Indiana since 1851. He taught at Indiana University until appointed by President Reagan as Secretary of Health and Human Services and confirmed by the US Senate on a vote of 93 to 2, making him the first medical doctor to serve in this position. He served in
Reagan’s cabinet until 1989, when he retired and came home to Bremen. That’s when we first met.

After 15 years with The Christian Science Monitor in Boston, my family moved to Plymouth, Indiana, where I tried to bring Monitor-quality journalism to Marshall County’s only daily paper, The Pilot-News. Bremen is a proud little one-stoplight town a few miles northeast of Plymouth. Hearing that Doc had returned from DC, I dialed his number
and was invited to interview him at his home.

We discussed national health issues, and he told how honored he was to serve as a presidential cabinet secretary. Before I left, he insisted I take a plastic bag of gourmet jelly beans which he vowed came from the Oval Office. Some may recall that President Reagan loved jelly beans and kept large bowls of them in his White House office.

After returning to the newsroom, I shared the jelly beans with fellow reporters, hoping they might make us smarter. They didn’t. But Doc’s candor, simplicity, and Hoosier honesty reminded me of some words Mrs. Eddy once wrote.

“The upright man is guided by a fixed Principle, which destines him to do nothing but what is honorable, and to abhor whatever is base or unworthy; hence we find him ever the same,at all times the trusty friend, the affectionate relative, the conscientious man of business, the pious worker, the public-spirited citizen (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 147).”

These words fit Doc Bowen to a T.


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