As told by Susan at Russ’s wake and edited by Kathy
Russ was 22 and an undergrad at the University of Oregon when he first ran for the State House of Representatives. He was next-to-the-youngest person ever elected to the legislature and loved every moment of it. Whenever we had a chance to talk, like when he was home from Juneau for hearings or the legislature was out of session, he always wanted to talk about legislation, the important things that needed doing and the wonderful time he was having. And telling me that I should run for the House, and that I would love it.
I was a working mother of a 3-year-old and knew that few women were elected at that time, and I was pretty sure no mother of a 3-year-old had served. I listened patiently and explained why I thought it was both impractical and impossible. But he persisted and finally convinced me and in his second term He said he would help me with a campaign, and so would our dad, and he eventually convinced me that it was doable, so on the last day of filing I put in my name for a House seat. That afternoon, I went home and saw my name in the newspaper for having filed, but not Russ’s. I called him to tell him of the paper’s error, but he said he’d decided to go back to school and finish up his BA. He said there were a few courses he had not taken, but ‘you’ll do fine’ he said, ‘and since I don’t have my own campaign to run, I’ll have time to work on yours!’
Well, he was true to his word and I was elected, and I did love it. I became a Committee Chair, and that legislative experience impacted my career for rest of my life.
Ten years later, Russ and Nancy Harvey had driven to Boston, and Russ, with his decade of legislative leadership experience, had been accepted at the Kennedy School at Harvard. When he came back to Alaska for spring break, he told me he felt I was missing an opportunity and should apply to the Kennedy School.
By this time, I had 2 kids and was pregnant with a 3rd. While I’d had some political and legislative experience, I knew it didn’t compare to Russ’s. I didn’t believe I would be accepted. And I knew I certainly didn’t have the time it would take to put together an application for graduate school at Harvard. I said it was out of the question. But he insisted, and he said he would take care of the application.
I finally said ‘OK’ and thought it would get him out of my hair. So, Catherine was born, and between my work and a newborn and Conor and Timmy, I only thought about Harvard when Russ needed information for my application or a signature for something. The summer passed. I forgot about it altogether. In late August Russ happened to be at Gramma ‘Del’s when I came by, and he was all in a tizzy. Had I heard anything yet from Harvard? No, for Pete’s sake, I said, it’s August! What are you talking about?
Russ jumped up and grabbed the phone and called the K school. He raised hell with the poor person who answered the phone, yelling about classes starting in a few weeks and the school’s failure to notify a working mother of 3 of her acceptance status. That poor person excused herself to go get an answer, and about 20 minutes later returned to say a letter of acceptance had been written but not mailed yet. I was in. I was in shock.
Russ started barking orders: ‘Pack as much stuff as you can in your car…Nancy’s parents will drive it down to Boston for you. They’ll leave Wednesday. I’ll get them a reservation on the ferry…You’ll need to get time off from work, find a place in Boston – don’t worry, I’ll find you one… you’ll need medical records for the kids, and school records — we’ll have to enroll the boys in school down there…”. And somehow that all happened, and in less than two weeks the kids and I were living in Needham Massachusetts. And I learned that someone else I knew had been accepted at the Kennedy school: Nancy Harvey, and what a wonderful year we had together at Harvard.
Meekins Family Stories 