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I have some thoughts about Sec. Shultz that won't be in any of the obits you read today. I came to know him when he was past 95 -- well past his prime newsmaking days. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/07/obituaries/george-p-shultz-dead.html?smid=tw-share
Each time I saw him, he would tell me what he thought of the newspaper. He received three newspapers: The Chronicle, the WSJ and the NYT. He read the Chronicle first. (He once told me that was because we ran "Dennis the Menace." I'm pretty sure he was teasing me.)
He was always unfailingly constructive, even when he thought something sucked. It was usually about foreign policy -- not something we really covered with local reporters. And then he would often send me a Hoover Foundation paper on the topic.
He often sent handwritten letters. My favorite was after an editorial urging Feinstein not to run again due to her age. He wrote "I think she is a bright young woman with a promising career." (That was before her dementia was well known -- he didn't know of it.)
What was interesting about that was Feinstein was a lifelong Democrat, and he a lifelong Republican. I always thought it was interesting that he could suffer living in SF, where "liberal" is not strong enough to characterize the area's politics. He was not an annoying partisan.
I remember about a week after his 98th birthday being at an event. Often people would say hello to him but not chat for long -- he often wanted to talk about substantive things, and the society crowd couldn't really do that for long. And he wasn't mobile enough to float around.
And so more often than not, I would park myself next to him. We would talk about China, Milton Friedman and trickledown economics (he didn't call it that, of course), the Marines, nuclear proliferation... whatever he wanted. (He never wanted to talk Trump. Not with me at least.)
He was smarter at 98 than I will ever be. And smarter than probably everyone in the room put together. Intellectually curious even at 98, and also unfailingly optimistic about the American Experiment.
He was funny, a great dresser (although that probably was more Charlotte) and worked for his country until the end.
Don't bother to reply with all his failings. I know what they are. We reported them. It is still true that San Francisco and the U.S. lost a great patriot today.
Don't bother to reply with all his failings. I know what they are. We reported them. It is still true that San Francisco and the U.S. lost a great patriot today.
