Anyone who thinks that old-fashioned Southern charm is dead has not met David Prior. This 66-year-old native of Arkansas is warm, witty, and thoroughly gracious. Sitting down with him to breakfast, as I did two weeks ago, proved to be a pleasant experience indeed.
His success as a politician is rivaled only by that other Arkansan of recent residence in the White House and his reputation for integrity is a whole lot better. Prior was elected Congressman, Governor, and Senator over a long career of public service. Now, after leaving the Senate, he has become director of Harvard University’s Institute of Politics at the Kennedy School of Government.
You might think that his new job is a come-down from the United States Senate. Not so – – David Prior loves it and sees it as another form of public service. During breakfast, some students came by and it became clear how they look up to him and how he enjoys their company.
During his time in the Senate, Prior became chairman of the Aging Committee. As such, he proposed legislation on matters that affect older Americans. Before that time, he led the way toward getting the House of Representatives to establish its own aging committee. He feels proud of creating this platform from which Claude Pepper championed action for the nation’s elder citizens.
The stories David Prior tells about first becoming involved with elder issues show how much he values direct experience. When first elected to Congress, he went to visit the Arkansas nursing home where his mother’s great-aunt was a resident. When he saw the conditions that prevailed there, he was appalled. He felt aghast that the old people who lived there were getting such irresponsible treatment.
After this raising of his consciousness, he resolved to change the ways in which institutionalized old people are cared for. Soon afterward, he flew to a nursing home in Pennsylvania where eight residents had died in a fire. That facility did not even have fire extinguishers. Though the legislation he introduced did not get through the House bureaucracy, he got a federal agency to establish protective regulations.
His frustration at the slow pace of change moved him to say to himself, “Heck, I’m going to go out and volunteer and see what it’s like.” This resolution led him to serve in eleven nursing homes in Maryland and Virginia, without telling them that he was a congressman. After a single day on the job, one home offered him the job of director.
On his last day as volunteer, he brought a news photographer with him. This led to coverage in the New York Times that spread around the world. The result was that Prior received twenty thousand letters, many of them from college kids concerned about relatives. Looking back on this experience, he says, “I really learned something about generations.”
Later in our conversation I raised the subject of how David Prior experiences himself as a person growing older. Three themes emerge forcefully in his response to this question, one that turns out to be surprisingly difficult for most people to answer.
For David Prior, the first idea that springs to mind is about young people. “There’s some special tonic about young people that I think is invaluable,” he says. “I’m constantly around them; I have such great hopes for them.”
Secondly, he wants to continue doing something meaningful. Association with young people makes his current job precious to him: “I would hate to get fired, to cut this off because it’s given me a lot of interest and reason to work.”
He contrasts his situation with that of some who have retired. “I have so many friends who go to the golf club at 11:30, then sit there and tee off about 1:30, then go home in the afternoon and take a nap. At 10 o’clock they watch TV and go to sleep.” He explains: “I like golf but that’s not my deal.”
A third theme is the rapidity of the years. “I can’t imagine it; someone else is 66, not me.” He looks back and asks himself, “Where did all those years go?”
About his years as governor and senator, he says: “So much of that is a blur. It’s like I stand on the street corner watching the traffic go by.”
That time passed so fast that he now has trouble separating out what happened when. He kept some journals but the material is not organized. However, he does imagine doing something to reconstruct this time: “Someday, I’ll get a tape recorder, sit around with some friends, and just yak.”
Obviously David Prior has a full treasury of experiences to enrich his old age. After growing up in a small town in the old south, he saw sweeping changes in both public and private life. They form a legacy that he can reflect on for years ahead and sift for their meaning.
Richard Griffin