Tim Russert, RIP

We were all pretty stunned this afternoon when news of Tim Russert's death arrived.

Reading some of the coverage I discovered numerous references to Russert's "Jesuit education"

As host of Meet the Press, Russert established himself as the consummate Washington insider, but he drew much of his knowledge and authority from his roots outside the Beltway. He was born in 1950 in Buffalo, N.Y., and his Rust Belt, Catholic roots constantly and conspicuously informed his work. He wrote memorably about his Buffalo upbringing and his father's influence on him in his memoir Big Russ and Me. As one of his NBC colleagues, Lisa Myers, once said of him, "Buffalo is a critical secret to understanding him," and he himself cited his Jesuit education as critically formative.

The Jesuits are inextricably linked to questioning, and so was Russert.

Appreciation: Tim Russert, 1950-2008

Russert grew up in Buffalo, New York, where his father worked as a truck driver and sanitation worker. He said he was the first person in his family to have a chance to attend college. He went to a small Jesuit university, John Carroll, in suburban Cleveland.

"For me my life is now complete. I have a Jesuit education and a Notre Dame diploma," he said near the end of his talk, referring to the honorary doctor of laws he had received earlier in the ceremony.

Russert feels right at home at Commencement
Notre Dame, 2002

It was a Jesuit homecoming for "Meet the Press" host Tim Russert at Boston College's 128th Commencement Exercises on May 24.

The Jesuit-educated NBC newsman, a BC parent-to-be who closed his address to some 3,000 graduates by donning a Maroon and Gold ball cap and exclaiming "Go Eagles!" had the crowd in Conte Forum on its feet with a speech that mixed humorous anecdotes from sports and politics with a call to service delivered from the heart of Catholic social teaching.

"Please do this world one small favor - remember the people struggling alongside you and below you," Russert urged the Class of 2004 at ceremonies moved indoors by rain.

"No matter what profession you choose, you must try, even in the smallest ways, to improve the quality of life of children in this country," Russert said.

"The best commencement speech I ever heard was all of 16 words: 'No exercise is better for the human heart than reaching down to lift up another person.'"

Russert, a product of Jesuit schooling at Canisius High School in Buffalo and John Carroll University in Cleveland, and whose son Luke will be a BC freshman this fall, was presented with an honorary Doctorate of Laws.

[snip]

Russert's address was an ode to blue-collar democratic values and Jesuit education.

The author of the best-selling book Big Russ & Me recalled the "true lessons of life" he had learned from the "quiet eloquence" and decency of his World War II veteran father, a truck driver and sanitation man who worked two jobs for 30 years and "never complained."

Russert became the first in his family to go to college when he went to John Carroll, where, he said, he received a "superb education.

"And so, too, with you," he said. "You chose a school that was different and you made the choice deliberately...

"You've been given an education that says it's not enough to have a skill. Not enough to have read all the books or know all the facts. Values really do matter.

"Boston College...a Catholic university founded by the Jesuits: Its only justification for existing is because it has a special mission - training young men and women to help shape and influence the moral tone and fiber of our nation and our society. And that means now you have a special obligation and responsibility...

"You have something others would give almost anything for! You believe in your God, in your country, in your family, in your school, in yourself, in your values...

"The values you have been taught, the struggles you have survived and the diploma you are about to receive, have prepared you to compete with anybody, anywhere.

"People with backgrounds like yours and mine can and have made a difference.

"In Poland, it was a young electrician named Lech Walesa, the son of a carpenter, who transformed a nation from communism to democracy.

"In South Africa, Nelson Mandela, who became President Nelson Mandela, a brave black man who worked his way through law school as a police office, spent 28 years in prison to make one central point - we indeed are all created equal.

"And on Sept. 11, at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and in the fields of Pennsylvania, it was our brother and sister police, fire and rescue workers who properly redefined modern-day heroism.

"All these men and women have one thing in common with you: Like the past, the future leaders of this country and this world will be born not to the blood of kings and queens, but to the blood of immigrants and pioneers."

Russert, speaking two weeks before the 60th anniversary of D-Day, urged graduates to "remember it is your grandparents, and your parents, who defended this country, who built this country, who brought you into this world and a chance to live the American dream.

"Will your generation do as much for your children?" he asked. "You know you must. Every generation is tested. Every generation is given the opportunity to be the 'Greatest Generation.'"

He hailed the "generous spirit of service" shown by the Jesuit Volunteer Corps and the Boston College Appalachia Volunteers.

And he cited BC tutors at the West End House, in Allston, "where the community room is now called the Boston College Room [see page 6], and where a young nine-year-old girl named Adrienne Andry was mentored for 16 years by BC students. She is now attending BC herself, saying simply, 'I feel like I want to give back because I've been helped so much by BC students.'

[snip]

Russert left the crowd laughing with anecdotes from the worlds of sports, journalism and politics.

"In preparing for today, I had thought about presenting a scholarly treatise on the Bush-Kerry presidential race, but I thought better of it," he said. "I guess I'm like that noted philosopher, Yogi Berra: I get it eventually. After Yogi had flunked [an] exam, his teacher came down the aisle, shook him and said, 'You don't know anything.' Yogi looked up and said, 'I don't even suspect anything.'"

Russert Talk Stresses Values, Jesuit Education