My name is Joe Seeber ’63 and this is my Southwestern story.                                               

One of my favorite courses at SU was a current events class, taught by Dr. George Hester. Our only text was the U.S. News and Worldly Report. Dr. Hester made it very interesting because he was more than an academic. He was a seasoned, experienced politician who had held a number of elected offices. Dr. Hestor’s office/classroom was on the second floor of the Cullen Building (then the Administration Building).

In 1960, Texas Democratic Senator Lyndon B. Johnson was elected Vice President of the United States. A special election was required to replace the Senator. Since there had not been a Republican elected to a statewide office in Texas in more than 30 years, it was assumed that a Democrat would be elected to replace Johnson.

Dr. Hester mentored Southwestern graduate and political wannabe John Tower ’48. Together the two of them hatched an outrageous idea that a Republican could be elected to replace Senator Johnson. More importantly, with Tower as the candidate and Hester the campaign manager, they devised and executed a plan to make it happen. John Tower was the first Republican to be elected to a statewide office in Texas, in more than three decades.

Few realized that this would be a watershed in Texas and national politics. John Tower went on to become a popular, effective, long-term Senator. The Republican Party road his coattail to become a significant factor and formidable force in Texas politics, then to become the dominant political party in Texas, in which Republicans hold virtually every statewide office in the Texas.

During this surge of Republican power, a number of politicians used their Texas experience to launch national political careers. Two of them would be George H. Bush and George W. Bush. When President Bush leaves office in 2008, one of the Bushes will have served in one of the two highest elected offices for 20 of the 28 prior years.

A plausible argument can be made that without the events in 1960-1961, in the Cullen Building, neither Bush would have ever been Vice President or President.

The significance of what Hester and Tower orchestrated from the Cullen Building can be further illustrated if one looks at the national election maps of recent history. Imagine that Texas was a blue state (still democratic). Presidents would have been different. The balance of power in the Congress would have been significantly different. And as a result, the world would be different.

Can a small liberal arts university be significant in shaping world events? Can anyone cite events in any college building that has affected the nation and the world more in the last 50 years?