Governor John Carl West

GOVERNOR JOHN CARL WEST

Mr. HOLLINGS. Mr. President, yesterday South Carolina lost a valuable public servant and I lost a very dear friend. Some 66 years ago John Carl West and I came to the Citadel as freshmen. The attention of the freshmen in those days was responding to the howling orders of the upperclassmen. But it wasn't long before John came to my attention. We both had COL Carl Coleman in political science and Colonel Coleman loved those Time magazine articles on public events. He would spring them on the class with a test. I would barley know half of the answers, but John Carl would get 100 every time. I felt I ought to pay closer attention to the smartest in a class of 525. In those days, at different heights, we were in different companies and different barracks, but we got thrown together on the Roundtable in the International Relations Club. I learned quickly that John was not only the academician but long on common sense.

Along with the other members of our class, John and I both left for the war shortly after graduation, but we ended up in the same class at the University of South Carolina Law School after the war. I got home the day after Thanksgiving in 1945 and Dean Friersen allowed that I could audit the classes and take the exams in January and if I passed them then I could be considered a law school student. Many in the class furnished me their notes, most notably John West. By January the 17th I was through the first semester and by May already through the first year. John and I and others marched on the legislature so that we veterans could continue in the summer and by August the following year I was through a 3-year course in less than 2 years. But I couldn't keep up with John. He was in a bigger rush, passing the bar exam before graduation, teaching at the university and forming a law partnership.

I used to kid him that I was catching up when in one election he was running for the State Senate and I was running for Lieutenant Governor. I carried Kershaw County by 1,200 votes and he became the Kershaw County Senator by three. John was more or less my lawyer when I was Governor. As a young Governor I needed help. My strong suit was that I knew the general assembly intimately, having been the presiding officer in both houses, so I had a three-man committee in the house with Floyd Spence, Rex Carter and Bob McNair, and a three-man committee on the senate side with Billy Goldberg, Marshall Parker and John West. West was astute and could immediately point the conflicts in a different way to get things done. This house-senate group would, off the record, vet all of my initiatives. Working together, most all of them got done and not a single veto was overridden in that 4-year period.

When West ran for Governor, South Carolina faced its toughest and most heated political choice. The school discrimination decision had hit with full force and so had racial politics. The school busses were being overturned. I had already been elected twice to the U.S. Senate and so I could give my schoolhood friend some help. South Carolina was lucky that John West became the Governor. He didn't mind using his political capital to get things done. John moved immediately to set a course for racial harmony in South Carolina with the appointment of James Clyburn as the head of the Human Relations Committee. The Clyburn decisions on the most sensitive situations had the full force and support of Governor West. A new day and a new direction for the State was set. The same was true with labor. A flood of industry had commenced by 1971 and the resistance of national labor was hitting the work force and communities of the State. Again, Governor West responded with the appointment of Ed McGowan, backing him up 100 percent. In the field of mental health, Governor West again set the tone and direction of mental illness treatment in South Carolina. Working with his brilliant wife, Lois, the cottage system in mental health clinics was launched, which today still makes South Carolina a forerunner in mental illness treatment.

But I guess it was John's appointment as Ambassador to Saudi Arabia that brought out the unique combination of personality and brilliance. I know the Arabs I-invaded Algeria and Tunisia in World War II and the tribal way of life was next to impossible. To form national policy and protect the United States interests with one of these countries isn't easy. The Kingdom felt that not only was John West close to President Carter, but he was almost family. He handled the knottiest problems with the greatest of ease. I used to kid him on several occasions, as he handled difficult problems, that that was the Arab blood in him.

At the end of all these important political offices John didn't retire. He maintained a vital interest in everything effecting the State of South Carolina. Like me, many would continue to call on him to see what John thought about a situation and he readily gave of his time and leadership. He had instituted a Chair in International Studies at the Citadel, continued to instruct political science at the University of South Carolina and on national problems was always conversant and wise. Many at home didn't realize the events of Washington, but John was my best read friend as well as my best friend. The truth is, he is the best friend that South Carolina ever had.