Glenn Poshard reflects on life in politics and education – Alton Telegraph

Poshard discussed those parts of his life and much more recently at Lovejoy Library at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville at a signing for his new book, “Son of Southern Illinois: Glenn Poshard’s Life in Politics and Education.”

The book, which was written by journalist and author Carl Walworth with Poshard, covers the entirety of Poshard’s life beginning in rural poverty up to and including the Poshard Foundation for Abused Children.

“I’ve always believed that everybody has a life story to tell, and I’ve been blessed with some experiences that I needed to share with folks, particularly my grandkids,” said Poshard. “I’ve known Carl for many years, back to 1990 when my congressional district was switched (from the 22nd to the 19th). Carl was the editor of the Mattoon and Charleston papers, and we became friends.

“Many years later he offered to write the book and I took him up on it, and he’s done a very good job of writing it. There are things in there that I felt I could share with people and maybe deal with some of the same experiences that I’ve had.”

Struggles revealed

Those experiences include Poshard’s mental health and his struggles with depression, which he had previously never discussed publicly.

“At one point in my life, I went through a nervous breakdown and Carl and I talked about whether we should include that,” said Poshard, who enlisted in the U.S. Army on his 17th birthday. “We talked honestly and openly about it and how I got through it.

“When I was 14, my sister and three of my best friends, who were all 17, were killed in an accident. My mom and dad’s marriage fell apart over that and then I lost my best friend in Vietnam, and he was the first kid from White County to die over there.

“I worked in a Korean orphanage when I was there in the Army, and I somehow blamed myself for not helping these kids enough to overcome their plight. It all fell in on me one day and poor farmer’s kids don’t go to psychologists.

“I had buried all those feelings and I had to get some help, so we talk about mental health issues in the book. There are a lot of folks today, especially young people, who are going through the same thing and hopefully my experiences can help them.”

Picking up after loss

The journey from the conception of the book until its publishing took five years, including many in-person interviews between Poshard and Walworth as well as meticulous research by Walworth.

For Poshard, choosing which topics to highlight and which stories to tell may have been the hardest part of the process.

“In the very beginning, we did hours and hours of interviews and did the story of my life from growing up in southeastern Illinois and he put those events in chronological order,” said Poshard, who did short readings from several chapters of the book while at SIUE on Tuesday. “We went through the entire list of things and picked out what we thought would be the most important ones.”

While a significant portion of the book is devoted to Poshard’s political career, one of his favorite parts of the book involves the creation of the Poshard Foundation for Abused Children, the seeds of which began immediately after his loss in the gubernatorial race in 1998.

The foundation will celebrate its 25th anniversary next year.

“My wife and I sat down and said, ‘What is our next step?’ and we’re not people to look backwards,” said Poshard, who served more than four-and-a-half years as a state senator and 10 years in Congress. “We both had experience dealing with abused, neglected and abandoned children, so we decided we wanted to form a foundation to take care of those children.”

‘It’s not like it used to be’

The divisive political climate which has gripped the nation for several years is especially hurtful to Poshard, and it’s a topic he discusses in the book.

“It’s chapter 26 and it’s called ‘The Shadow Side of Leadership’ and it may be the most important chapter for me,” Poshard said. “I’m a Democrat and Ralph Dunn was a Republican state senator from southern Illinois.

“Ralph and I used to ride back and forth to Springfield together and when my son Dennis was 18 years old he went with me for a week to Springfield to see what it was like.

“At the end of the week, I asked him what he liked most about the experience and he said it was sitting in the back seat of the car and listening to me and Ralph talking about constituents and policies. More recently, he asked me how we got from me and Ralph Dunn to where we are today, when people don’t even want to talk to each other.

“It’s not like it used to be. As far as government goes, when people send us to Springfield, they expect us to sit down at the table with each other just like we must do at home at the kitchen table.

“You need to iron out your problems, but for some reason, neither side seems to want to do that anymore, and that’s to the detriment of the country.”

SIU leader remembered

Many of Poshard’s memories from his time at SIU, meanwhile, are focused on his close relationship with Vaughn Vandegrift, who served as SIUE’s seventh chancellor from 2004 to 2012.

Vandegrift died on July 13 at age 76.

“When it came to leadership of SIUE, Dr. Vandegrift led and I followed,” Poshard said. “The one thing I always loved and appreciated about SIUE was the camaraderie on this campus, which was unrivaled.

“People worked together and under Vaughn’s leadership, they helped build this university into what it is today.”

“Son of Southern Illinois” is available on Amazon and most other online book publishers and is also available through SIU Press.