The LuLac Edition #2484, July 29th, 2013

BILL SCRANTON-1917-2013

The photo I remember as a boy seeing in a few businesses in downtown Pittston. (Photo: Wikipedia.com)

The Scrantons on the cover of Life Magazine at the '64 convention. (Photo: Life archives.) 

Bill Scranton on the cover of Time Magazine in 1962. (Photo: Time Magazine).

1964 Scranton campaign poster when Scranton ran for President. (Photo: Times Tribune).

The official portrait of William Scranton as Governor. (Photo: Harrisburg Patriot).

Bill Scranton on the speaking trail.  (York Daily Record). 

BILL SCRANTON DIES 

Bill Scranton has been on my mind the last few weeks. I knew he was going to turn 96 this month and I’ve resisted the urge to do a pre-profile for the same reason I didn’t write my mother’s obituary five years ago even though I knew she was gravely ill. It just seemed too morbid to do so. A few Sundays ago Mrs. LuLac and I took a ride to Clarks Summit and again he popped into my mind. On Sunday, I thought maybe I should start working on something. 
Then today, the news came that William Warren Scranton, the 38th Governor of the State of Pennsylvania died. It was a sudden but still a bit of a jolt since to me he was always a constant and in effect larger than life.
Bill Scranton was as part of my political coming of age as any Democrat in the 1960s. My first exposure to him came in the 1962 campaign for Governor when my father and his union railroad buddies backed Philadelphia Mayor Richardson Dilworth. Even though I was eight, and I heard my father’s Democratic family rail against Scranton, I was quietly impressed. In Scranton I saw a pretty sharp guy that everyone seemed to like. His demeanor was measured but he seemed very sure of himself. Plus in the mid 60s in some Pittston businesses like barbershops and cab stations, there was a photo of Bill Scranton, the Governor. 
Scranton was a Yale man, served with distinction in World War II (he logged more than 2000 hours of flight time but saw no combat) and was the scion of the wealthy family that founded the city of Scranton. The family was traced back to 1637 and the Scranton name was derived from the Dutch word “Schrantsen”. That meant to tear, break or seize.
Worthington Scranton, the Governor’s father was President of the Scranton Gas and Water Company. In 1928 Worthington sold the concern for 25 million dollars and donated his downtown home to the University of Scranton. He then built Marworth on 240 acres north of the city. 
His mother, Marion Margery Warren Scranton was a sufferagate at the age of 16 and founded the Pennsylvania Council of Republican Women. Known as “The Duchess”, if the national GOP wanted to make an inroad, it would have to go through Mrs. Scranton. From that pedigree came William Warren Scranton. Asthmatic as a child, Scranton was to become one of the most athletic Governors of the State. 
After the war Scranton resumed his studies at Yale and some of his fellow students were Supreme Court Justices Potter Stewart and Byron White, Sergeant Shriver, Cyrus Vance, Gerald Ford and Ray Shafer who would succeed him as Governor. When school was over,   Scranton entered business and had interests in salt, (broadcasting, he owned WARM Radio and WNEP TV) railroads and publishing. 
In 1959 Scranton entered public life and served 10 months with Eisenhower Secretary of State Christian Herter. In 1960 he ran for Congress, won in a heavily Democratic district in an election where John Kennedy won Lackawanna County big and made a name for himself as a political comer. The Scranton influence was so powerful that in 1961, with just a few campaign appearances, Scranton helped propel William Schmidt, then 37 to the Mayor’s office after a long time of Democratic reign. 
By 1962, the Republican party in Pennsylvania was desperate for a win. It was on its heels with a registration deficit of about 195,000 votes. About ten people jumped in the race, even Senator Hugh Scott for a while. Scranton said he would run if the field was cleared. In no time, Scranton had the support of 66 of the 67 GOP County Chairmen and won the nomination going away. In the campaign, Scranton was treated with disdain by his opponent who called him a “Little Lord Fauntleroy” but Scranton just smiled and plunged on. Dilworth had a hard time running against a candidate who as a Congressman voted to increase the minimum wage and support JFK’s depressed areas programs. 
As Governor, Scranton signed into law sweeping reforms in the state's education system including creation of the state community college system, the state board of education, and the state Higher Education Assistance Agency. Furthermore, he created a program designed to promote the state in national and international markets and to increase the attractiveness of the state's products’ and services. Scranton had record surpluses, the largest bring in 1965 when he had so much he started a 10 million dollar highway program that was lauded throughout the county. Scranton got the 1966 Mental Health/Mental Retardation Act of 1966 passed, the establishment of the Community Affairs Department, the Arts Council, the designation of the Lehigh River to state control after the coal barons took control of it in 1818, Temple and Pitt being classified as State Schools, the Creation of the Consumer Protection Agency and the historic first that mine owners would be responsible for above the ground damage done by their underground operations. When the Legislators did a pay grab in 1966, Scranton helped his successor Ray Shafer engineer a Constitutional Convention. 
Although he did not actively seek the 1964 Republican nomination for President of the United States in the beginning, a “Draft Scranton” movement quickly gathered momentum among moderate and liberal Republicans who saw him as an alternative to conservative front-runner Senator Barry Goldwater. Former President Eisenhower said he’d support his bid but minutes before Scranton was to appear on “Face The Nation” and announce strongly and forcefully, Ike pulled the plug. Other Republicans who feared that Goldwater's polarizing views would lead to defeat, after the campaign of Goldwater's liberal opponent, New York governor Nelson Rockefeller, had derailed saw him as an alternative. Early in the campaign, he announced that he would be willing to accept the nomination for Vice President.
Scranton first declined to enter the race but later threw his hat into the ring on June 12, 1964. Scranton won the support of ten state delegations in a 32 day campaign that cost 1 million dollars. There are some who say Scranton started too late. A month after the assassination of John Kennedy, a New York Herald Tribune editorial was written exhorting Scranton to run but he declined. 
Scranton was shaken by the death of Kennedy and had actually invited the late President to a commemoration of the Gettysburg address the week JFK was killed. Kennedy declined the invitation to go to Dallas. 
Rebounding from the nomination loss, Scranton reentered his job in Harrisburg with great gusto. Scranton, after leaving the office repeatedly said on the cover of Scranton newspapers that he would not run for any office ever again. He did not give up on public service though. Under the then-existing Pennsylvania law, Scranton was limited to a single term and could not run for reelection in 1966. 
After his term in office, Scranton attended the Pennsylvania Constitutional Convention of 1967-1968 and helped write a new constitution for the state, which included a provision allowing future governors to seek a second term. In 1968, President-elect Richard Nixon asked Scranton to become Secretary of State, but he declined. He did serve as a special envoy to the Middle East but when he said the Nixon Administration should be "more evenhanded" in managing the problems of the Middle East, some in the American Jewish community regarded this as anti-Semitic and Nixon quickly distanced himself from the former governor. In accordance with his 1966 pledge never to seek elected office, he rebuffed a draft movement encouraging him to run for the U.S. Senate. After the Kent State shootings in 1970 Scranton was asked to chair the President's Commission on Campus Unrest to investigate this and other incidents of campus violence and protest. The committee’s conclusions came to be known as the “Scranton Report”. Following Nixon's resignation from the Presidency in 1974, he was appointed as a transition team member for incoming President Gerald Ford. In 1976 Ford named him as Ambassador to the United Nations and reportedly he declined the nomination to run with Ford as Vice President. 
Scranton’s retirement years were punctuated by stints on various corporate boards, lending his expertise to good social causes, supporting his son Bill Scranton III’s political career, giving insightful interviews to local news outlets as well as taking care of his wife Mary who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. At the age of 60, in the 70's, he was a "Senior Statesman".
Scranton died yesterday in Santa Barbara on a visit from cerebral hemorrhage. 
A few final thoughts about him. He was as much as an inspiration to young people interested in politics as John Kennedy was in the 60s. He was a moderate who had no use for right wing reactionaries that would bring his party disgrace. As we reflect on his life, we remember his wit, humor, grace under pressure, the Charleston display he did at his 1963 inaugural, his reputation as consultant to the world after leaving office, his more than 50 bestowed honorary degrees, his honesty and his honor. 
But one word sums up Bill Scranton and it was uttered by the 34th President of the United States, Dwight Eisenhower. Ike said, “When it all comes down to Bill, is a our letter word: duty”. 
Thank you Mr. Scranton for doing that duty. We are all the richer for it and are in your debt.