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Former U.S. Ambassador Sally Novetzke dies
President George H.W. Bush appointed Cedar Rapids Republican to Malta post in 1989
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CEDAR RAPIDS — Sally Novetzke, a well-known Cedar Rapids Republican who worked with prime ministers and generals, kings and queens, presidents and popes and who served as U.S. ambassador to the Mediterranean island of Malta in the early 1990s, has died. She was 93.
“I knew Sally as a dedicated leader, hard-working grass-roots organizer and gregarious Iowan,” said U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa. ”She made a real impact on her community and was ever loyal to her country. She was an outstanding ambassador to Malta, and she was a key organizer of the Gorbachev-President George H.W. Bush summit that was held in Malta. Barbara and I were fortunate to call her a friend.“
Former Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad said he, too, “will always remember Sally as a hardworking and loyal Republican. .... She was highly respected, (and) will be greatly missed in the state of Iowa.”
Branstad, a former U.S. ambassador to China, also mentioned Novetzke’s years as the Malta ambassador where she “played a key role” in the hosting of the 1989 summit between the U.S. and Soviet leaders. And, he said, she was a spark plug in Bush’s campaigns in Iowa.
Novetzke, who died Jan. 29 in Cedar Rapids, met George H.W. Bush in 1979 when he was in Iowa campaigning for Ronald Reagan. The next day, Bush appointed her as Linn County coordinator of the Reagan-Bush campaign. Bush was Reagan’s vice president for eight years before being elected president in 1988.
Novetzke and her husband, Dick, a former Navy pilot who died in 2013, became good friends of George and Barbara Bush, vacationing with them at the Bush home in Kennebunkport, Maine, and at Camp David.
Bush, or “G.B.” as Novetzke often called him, asked her about moving to Washington and working for the Republican Party in the early 1980s, she recalled in a 2015 Gazette interview. She demurred because she still had a son in school.
“I said, ‘Call me when you're president,’ ” Novetzke said. “And he did.”
Novetzke served as U.S. ambassador to Malta — a Mediterranean island nation known for its stunning coastline, temples and the 1941 movie “The Maltese Falcon” — from 1989 to 1993. “They all spoke English because the Brits had been there for 150 years,” Novetzke said in the 2015 Gazette interview.
Novetzke arrived in Malta as the U.S. was preparing to host a summit there with the Soviet Union. She led a team that coordinated the two-day meeting between Bush and Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev.
The Malta Summit occurred on a cruise ship in international waters, but the weather in December 1989 didn't cooperate.
“Every day as the weather got worse, the ship came closer to shore,” Novetzke said.
Some say the summit started the Cold War thaw, with talks about arms control and plans for reunifying Germany after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Novetzke said she wasn't in the room for most of those conversations.
“I was so busy entertaining admirals for lunch or whatever,” she said, adding that she wondered at the time if she had been a man would she have been invited to the meetings. “I did see some of it and hear some of it, but I really wanted to be in on all of that.”
Sally Novetzke’s legacy in politics remembered
Secretary of State Paul Pate, a former Cedar Rapids mayor and Republican state lawmaker, said Novetzke was “a dear friend, and I am mourning the profound loss of such a committed, lifelong advocate. Sally dedicated her life not just to conservative causes, but to her entire community.”
“I was lucky to see this firsthand when I was a state legislator and worked alongside her during her time as chairman of the Linn County Republicans. Sally’s legacy in the Linn County community will be powerful and lasting, and my prayers are with her many loved ones during this time.”
Ron Corbett of Cedar Rapids, another former Cedar Rapids mayor and former Republican speaker of the Iowa House, recalled seeking out Novetzke when he was 26 years old and first running for the Iowa House.
“I was just cutting my teeth in politics in 1986,” he said. “When you’re a rookie, you need to go talk to the elder statespeople. Certainly, Sally was one of those ... someone you needed to know. I was able to win, with help from Sally and others.”
Corbett also noted the Novetzkes’ friendship with the Bushes, saying that she introduced him to Bush when he was in Cedar Rapids.
“And then he appointed her as ambassador to Malta, where she represented not just Iowa but our country.”
Dawn Roberts of Des Moines, former chair of the Polk County Republican Party and former president of the state Republican women’s organization, said Novetzke “changed my life” when Novetzke, then chair of the state Republican Party, asked Roberts to run for Iowa secretary of state in 1986. “The scary part is I almost won,” she said.
“She was such a dynamic person,” Roberts said. “She was a tireless worker for the party, intelligent, charming, creative and energetic. She had an infectious laughter and was a community servant. Her skills in bringing factions together was realized when she was ambassador to Malta. ... She will be sorely missed.”
Served in key Republican posts but never ran for office
Novetzke was born Jan. 12, 1932, in Stillwater, Minn., to Melvin and Margorie Johnson and attended Carleton College in Northfield, Minn. She is survived by four children, eight grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren. A celebration of her life will be held this summer, according to her obituary, which is scheduled to publish in Sunday’s Gazette.
Novetzke chaired the Linn County Republican Party from 1979 to 1980, the state Republican Party from 1982 to 1985 — the first woman to do so — and the Iowa Federation of Republican Women from 1987 to 1989.
Novetzke was a delegate to the state, district and county Republican conventions from 1974 to 1988 and the Republican National Convention in 1980 and was a member of the National Rules Committee. In 1984, she was a delegate to the Republican National Committee and served on the Permanent Organization Committee. She was a delegate-at-large to the 1988 Republican convention.
Novetzke also was an appointed board member of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum, the Hoover Presidential Foundation and the National Council on Vocational Education. In Cedar Rapids, she was active in the Greater Cedar Rapids Community Foundation, Cedar Valley Humane Society, Mount Mercy University, Four Oaks, Camp Courageous and Garden Club of America.
In the 2015 interview with The Gazette, Novetzke said she’d been encouraged to run for office during her years in politics but that she preferred to be the “kingmaker and queenmaker, because when I run people for office, I can do more good by getting them elected.”
“That's my calling,” she said, “my area of expertise.”
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