Good News Florida

PERSPECTIVE GoodNewsFL.org 5 MARCH 2018 too many meetings, those kinds of things. Especially in those early on years there were big moments where he was gone for sometimes months at a time, and that wasn’t really shocking or new, but I do know that he regretted it, and I think the family missed it as well. GN - Did he drive his own car? ST - Yes, as far as what I remember he did. Of course, when he got older… He didn’t do much driving anyway because when he traveled he was always in some cab or going somewhere, but definitely. I’m trying to remember. I think they always had Fords I think. Just normal cars. Just a regular sedan. GN - Did he ever take kids fishing or throw a football or play with them? ST - Yea…Again when he was younger, I was the oldest so I got to enjoy him in his younger years. But I have memories of taking a walk with him on the beach. I have memories of fishing with him. I have memories of just one-on-one talking time. He was always accessible, always available. One of my fondest memories was when I was about 12 years old, he decided to take each one of his grandchil- dren one at a time. He decided he wanted to have them come along with him to the meetings, the crusade meetings that they were called at the time. Typically, in those times, he would go to a city for upwards of maybe two weeks. The meet- ings lasted maybe five to seven nights, but he would go there and meet with var- ious pastors and city leaders and dignitaries, his team, his staff. He would do that for four or five days, press. And then he would have his crusade meetings, and he would stay for a couple of days afterwards and then he would leave. So I was able to shadow him when he did that in San Diego. That was probably 40 years ago. So I was the first one who got to enjoy that experience. It was such a wonderful memory because I can honestly say not only was it fun for a kid, you know you get to meet the press people and meet the mayor and do that kind of thing, but I remember two specific things that stick out to me. One was I never saw as a young impressionable 12-year-old boy, I never saw any inconsistencies of his private life and his public life. And you know when you hang with someone for two weeks you would think that you probably would see that at some point, but I never did. And I remember one specific moment when we did the meeting, and what he would typically do is right after the meeting, the crusade meeting in the stadium, he would get a police escort back to his hotel just because of the crowds, and he would typically stay at a Marriott Hotel, nothing particularly fancy. The reason he would stay at Marriott was Bill Marriott was a friend of his and said, you’re always welcome at our hotel and I will comp your stay. He was very gracious to him on that. So he always stayed at Marriott and he would go back to the hotel. Then he would go up to his hotel room, order room service, and again it was always just a hamburger or something pretty normal, and he would pull two or three guys to- gether and they would debrief together. And he would say, ok talk to me about my sermon. What can I improve on tomorrow? Any thoughts on this or that? And they would debrief the meeting. Well, he included me in that debrief. And I just remem- ber sitting there eating a hamburger or whatever I was eating, and I remember him looking at me and asking what do you think and giving me the opportunity to comment on that evening. And I think two things: one I don’t remember what I said and I hope and pray that I said nothing. Knowing me, I probably did say something. But the fact that he acknowledged me and included me, that says a lot about how he treated me as a grandchild. The way he thought of his grandchildren, the way he thought of people. And so that’s a fairly vivid and a good example of the type of grandfather. So, yes, we had our moments to fish or walk on the beach, but then there were those more profound life shaping moments as well. GN - He was known as the pastor to the presidents. And I know that it was 5 or 6 of them. And I once before asked you, did he go to the White House? My recol- lection was, no, they came to him. ST - I don’t remember saying that. But, yea, he had access. There were several… It’s pretty well recorded in history that he had pretty close relationships with several of the presidents over the years. I think he was the closest to the Bush family. They would often invite him and include him in the White House. He was never one that I was aware of that ever demanded access to the White House. He was often considered sort of the pastor to the presidents or maybe in some cases a spiritual advisor or whatever. It got him in trouble once in a while. He got a little too close to Nixon, and he got into some trouble with that, of which he truly re- pented. I was actually speaking to a gentleman last night who had been very in- volved in one of my grandfather’s meetings in… I forget which city. I want to say Cleveland or Cincinnati or something like that. And it was at the same time that the Nixon tapes came out. There were recordings of my grandfather speaking with President Nixon. And President Nixon was saying some anti-Semitic remarks and my grandfather was, I don’t know the specific recording, but in essence was going along with them. And so word got out …Did you hear what Billy Graham has said with Nixon? And so my grandfather contacted this gentleman and said, “look, I want you to get all the prominent Jewish leaders in this city together.” And he said, “I do not want any press. I don’t want you to tell anybody about it. Just do it quietly.” So he did and 10-15 leaders got together and my grandfather went into that room and very humbly said, “I don’t recall these comments, but it is my voice on the tape. I am so, so sorry. That is not my heart.” And he just spent time with these in- fluential Jewish leaders not making a press deal, not defending himself in the media, but simply recognizing and acknowledging that he got a little too close to power, a little seduced by it, and it mired his judgement. So it’s a longer context to your question about the White House, but I think there were times when he was there just to comfort a president maybe provide personal counsel on a personal issue. There are times when presidents asked access to him I think to sort of get a sense of the pulse of maybe a major issue. He was ahead of his time when it came to race relations. So I think he was always considered sort of an advisor and a personal friend to several, but at the same time he also made his mistakes being close to power. GN - I remember as he got older you mentioned that I think president Obama in- vited him to the White House but he was a little too frail at the time and president Obama went to the house to meet with him. ST - President Obama had wanted him to come by and visit, but he couldn’t be- cause of his health. I wasn’t there or anything. So President Obama and Michelle the first lady were kind enough to make their way to North Carolina to his mountain home and spent time together and they prayed together. And obviously I’m not privy to the conversation, but I think that says a lot, not only about my grandfather, but about all the presidents even their graciousness. GN - In reading a little bit about your grandfather. I saw that he was on the cutting edge of media. He got out in front of it. In 1943 in the bio the reference was William Randolph Hearst was maybe his big break. I think he was 25 at the time, some- thing of that nature. And William Randolph Hearst actually told his editors to get behind his crusades because he had important messages. ST - Right, yes. And that was his big break. So, he was a typical tent revivalist back in the day when there were quite a few of these guys that went around and would go to these towns, and they’d set up the tent with the sawdust floor, and they would preach hell fire and brimstone, call people to repentance, call people Billy Graham and Stephan Tchividjian (baby) (Continued on the next page)