A granddaughter of a former president and a student civil rights leader were only two of the Institute of Politics (IOP) Fall Semester Fellows gathered in the ARCO Forum of Public Affairs yesterday evening for a panel discussion.
Susan Eisenhower and John Mack, along with Dan Kemmis '68, Susan Molinari and Marguerite Sullivan each shared their "Personal Perspectives on Politics" with a group of about 50 people.
"It's a great collection of fellows," said Dionne A. Fraser '99. "They're wonderfully diverse in backgrounds, but they all share a love for service."
Susan Eisenhower is the granddaughter of former president Dwight D. Eisenhower, and she currently serves as chair of the Washington-based Center for Political and Strategic Studies.
Susan Eisenhower's first political memories are the 1956 Republican convention and her grandfather's second presidential inauguration.
Her interest in foreign policy stemmed from a surprise visit to her home by Soviet Premier Nikita Khruschev in 1959.
"My grandfather had this rather bad habit of dropping in with foreign visitors," Eisenhower said. "I will, of course, never forget this encounter. It was the genesis of how I got interested in Russian affairs."
For Eisenhower, an interest in Russian affairs extends to a personal level.
"I got married to one of Gorbachev's advisers. He was the first person in the history of the Soviet Union to vote against a piece of legislation," she said. "You might say the rest is history."
Mack is a native of South Carolina, where he encountered much of the segregation that he would work to eliminate as a civil rights activist.
"I grew up in the 1940s and 1950s, the time of rigid blatant segregation and the ugly raw hatred that is almost impossible to imagine," Mack said.
Mack found his inspiration for public service while in Atlanta during the height of the civil rights movement.
"There was something about that period as we stood toe to toe with the Klan threatening our lives," he said.
To conclude, Mack quoted Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.: "Everybody can be great, because anybody can serve."
Former U.S. representative Susan Molinari began her political career at age 26 as a member of the New York City Council.
