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Dedication of Mundt Library recalled 40 years later
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By ZACH ANDERSON, Daily Leader News Intern
| 06/03/2009 |
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In 1969, President Richard M. Nixon dedicated the Karl E. Mundt Library on the General Beadle State College campus in Madison. Today is the 40-year anniversary of that dedication.
A crowd of around 15,000 people packed the area around the library to hear the president speak.
It was Nixon's first visit to a college campus and the first presidential visit to Madison in 70 years, since William McKinley in 1900.
Construction of the Mundt Library was completed in the fall of 1968. Dr. Harry Bowes, the president of General Beadle State College, called the library "one of the finest and most complete college libraries in South Dakota and the Midwest."
Nixon's speech echoed that it was a time for respect and honesty, with people revolting all over the country regarding the Vietnam war.
"I speak now of their demand for honesty: intellectual honesty, personal honesty, public honesty," Nixon said then.
In regard to those who grew impatient over the Democratic process, "This sort of self-righteous moral arrogance has no place in a free community," Nixon said. "It denies the most fundamental of all values we hold: Respect for the rights of others. This principle of mutual respect is the keystone of the entire structure of ordered liberty that makes freedom possible."
Mayor H.I. Reilly asked all Madison residents to display the American flag outside of their homes to show their patriotism.
Among the attendees were Nixon's wife Pat, daughters Julie and Tricia, and son-in-law David Eisenhower.
Madison Daily Leader editor/reporter Gale Pifer covered the historic event. Now retired, Pifer recalls that although the press was screened off to a small area, they could see the dedication event well.
"When the Secret Service came to town, they were going down Egan Avenue and they found several trucks with guns in them," Pifer said. "The Secret Service asked someone to get rid of those guns, but they were told to forget about it, so the presidential route was changed from Egan Avenue to 9th Street."
About 30 Highway Patrolmen and 90 National Guardsmen were gathered to supervise traffic control points, along with Madison's 11 city policemen. County Sheriff Norman McGillivray and Deputy Sheriff Ken Simons were helpful in assisting traffic positions; McGillivray was also in charge of escorting the presidential car in and out of the city.
There were a few protesters seen at the event. One man yelled some obscenity at Nixon and was hit by a man standing beside him, but security was able to stop the fight.
"Security was looking for a guy who went into a building that used to be called Old Romans Gym, but it turned out it was just somebody who had to go to the bathroom," Pifer said.
None of the incidents put a damper on the day, which became one of the biggest events in Madison's history.
Children in the first and second grades in Madison wrote letters to President Nixon prior to his visit. Timmy Oines of Garfield School wrote, "Dear President, I wish I could meet you. I wish you and I could talk about the moon."
Bob from Lincoln School wrote, "Dear President Nixon will you stop the war anytime?" Brian Dick from Garfield School wrote, "I would like to show my lambs to the President." Carrie Stopfer of St. Thomas School wrote, "Dear Mr. President, I would like to shake your hand My mother and Dad didn't vote for you."
The library was dedicated to Mundt for his 30 years of congressional service and 22 years of friendship with Nixon, starting with their days on the House Committee on Un-American Activities in 1947.
The building cost $855,000 to build and contains 44,000 square feet. One of the rooms in the library's center is a duplication of the senator's Washington office.
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©Madison Daily Leader 2010
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