Thank you, Norman Sherman

It’s not as ironic as it may seem, Gazette Insights’ youngest and most conservative staff writer writing a tribute to our oldest and one of our most liberal guest contributors. Even when politics does not, as the saying goes, make for strange bedfellows, a background in politics can still make for kindred spirits.

Sherman and I have never actually met, but as political writers, we both have a tendency to write commentary that certain readers love and others loathe. We both have been known by our respective circles to blurt out brash comments destined to get us in some sort of trouble.

I don’t have as many stories about my own meager background in politics as Sherman, who now resides in Coralville. I’ve never met the Pope, I’ve never made a flip remark that infuriated the Vice President of the United States (though believe me, I’ve tried,) and I’ve never been photographed sleeping on Air Force Two. I can only read about the 1963 March on Washington. Sherman was there.

Only a very few people have as many stories as Sherman — about working “extensively in politics” or otherwise — because very few people have been alive as long as he has. Sherman is in his late nineties.

That extensive work in politics included serving as press secretary for Vice President Hubert Humphrey during some of the most pivotal moments of the 1960s. During a Democrat party fundraiser on April 4, 1968 at which Humphrey was keynote speaker, Sherman was the one to deliver the news to his boss that Martin Luther King, Jr. had been shot earlier that evening. Humphrey immediately ended the event.

After almost five years of regular contributions to The Gazette Insights page, Sherman has elected (pun intended) to power down his computer. Or pack up his typewriter, set down his quill and ink, or whatever nonagenarians use to pen their stories.

Many of Sherman’s stories were published in his 2015 memoir, “From Nowhere to Somewhere.” That would have doubled as a nice title for his column, which appeared on the Insights page an average of once a week.

But Sherman was neither an employee nor a contracted freelancer. Like other frequent Gazette contributors of the past and present whose works have been eagerly consumed by our readership, he provided his content for the good of the readership.

We couldn’t even call him a “regular contributor.” He was always a “guest columnist.” Our guest for almost five years.

I dare say that the benefit was mutual to a degree — the joy of feedback, most of which was praise; and the satisfaction of still contributing to the discourse long after Sherman left Washington.

But without a doubt, the benefit was mostly ours.

No one will ever fill Sherman’s shoes. What remains to be seen is how we fill his space on our Insight page.

Submissions on timely and relevant subjects are welcome. Connection to the issues one writes about is necessary. Having been alive since Coolidge was president is not.

Meanwhile, Sherman has promised to pop back in from time to time with an occasional column in the future, welcome news already to his Gazette-reading fans. We hope that unlike many politicians, he keeps his promise.

Comments: Call or text 319-398-8266; althea.cole@thegazette.com