PEORIA MAGAZINE November 2022

Ray LaHood poses with attendees at a leadership forum at the U.S. Department of Transportation in 2010

U.S. Rep. Bob Michel shakes hands ahead of a meeting with UPS workers in this candid photograph from the late 1980s or early 1990s

As a local newspaper editorial observed of Dirksen days after his death in 1969, "he was a man of good will. He was never vindictive even with those who gave him vicious provocation. ... He could take it. He didn't bother to dish it out." Michel famously preached that “raising the level of your voice doesn't raise the level of discussion. You know that listening with care is better than talking in sound bites and thinking in slogans. You know that peaks of uncommon progress can be reached by paths of common courtesy.” The comity they modeled is, often as not, replicated here at the local level. Generations of state lawmakers have crossed party lines to work together for the Peoria region, and the decency and respect shown to fellowmembers is the rule rather than the exception on our city councils and school boards. We know, sadly, that’s not always the case elsewhere. Over generations, this trio also mentored countless future leaders, enriching the landscapes of our companies and not-for-profits in central Illinois and beyond. As a young congressman, Michel was taken under Dirksen's wing, repeatedly recalling his mentorship in later years. Michel thenmentored a newgeneration of public servants, including eventual successor Ray LaHood, who recalls him as a teacher: "His classrooms were his office, the floor of the House, its

committee rooms, and the farms and towns of the 18th District. Everywhere he went, he taught us by his example what it meant to be a public servant in the truest sense of that phrase."

at noon to read with pre-teens. Over the course of 14 years, he continued that practice. One of the young women he had read to had remembered what she learned and went out of her way at age 21, more than a decade after she'd last seen him, to let him know what it meant to her. ‘YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT INFLUENCE MENTORING CAN HAVE … IT'S SO IMPORTANT’ "You have no idea what inf luence mentoring can have. That's why mentoring is so important," LaHood wrote in his memoir. Such skills remind us why these public servants are still celebrated and honored across central Illinois today, and why so many leaders and public servants still seek to follow their examples. The Dirksen Congressional Center preserves the papers and artifacts of central Illinois members of Congress, including Sen. Everett Dirksen and Reps. Bob Michel and Ray LaHood. To learn more, visit dirksencenter.org. — Ray LaHood

The Everett Dirksen commemorative stamp was issued in Pekin, Illinois, on Jan. 4, 1981

LaHood then imparted those lessons on a generation of staff and interns as the wheel continued to turn. Mentoring isn't always about molding a successor. It's about helping others more broadly. When LaHood arrived inWashington, D.C., as a congressman, he began to visit a local elementary school on Tuesdays

Chris Kaergard is communications manager and associate historian at Pekin’s Dirksen Congressional Center. He is a former newspaper reporter and editor

NOVEMBER 2022 PEORIA MAGAZINE 79