My first semester at Kent State . . .

My first semester at Kent State, I took Political Parties and Interest Groups with Dr. John Logue. One assignment was to volunteer for twenty hours for a candidate or issue campaign of our choice and write a paper about our experiences. On the sheet he handed out explaining the assignment, he included a few contacts for local races (on both sides of aisle of course). I called the number that connected me to Tim Ryan for Congress in 2002. With a nudge and a lot of encouragement, Dr. Logue started me a path that led to professional and personal successes. I am grateful and heartbroken I was able to tell him how much that class (and subsequent classes I took with him) meant to me and how thankful I am that I was in the right place at the right time to learn a little from his genius before he passed.

On the Tim Ryan campaign I fell in love with both campaigning as a career and Sean, who is now my husband of four and a half years. I am sure Dr. Logue saw the former as a possible outcome of the assignment, but showed little surprise at the latter either. In fact, over the years, Sean and I have constantly given him credit for finding each other - after all, if I hadn’t been in the class and Dr. Logue had written some other campaign contact information on the assignment sheet, things could have been very different for us. Dr. Logue always pushed away the credit we assigned him, saying “I’ll take credit if it goes well, but if it ends poorly, I’m not accepting the blame”. When I introduced Dr. Logue to my parents at an awards banquet dinner, I introduced him as the professor that gave me the assignment that led to Sean. Dr. Logue, looking slightly panicked at my father, said “Heidi! That might not be a good thing to your father, don’t blame me for that, I deny it”. I didn’t think about it at the time, but who would know better than Dr. Logue how fathers feel about their daughters and dating.

Dr. Logue, and his wife Olga, have always been there for us. This was amazing, because I’m sure many students came and went from his life yearly, so his patience and willingness to not only spend time us but also help us celebrate our successes is truly a testament to what kind of man he was. Dr. Logue and Olga took my husband and I out to dinner for my birthday one year, where they gave me a book called “Rivethead” by Ben Hamper. They were unable to attend our wedding because of prior commitments that had them out of the country, and he expressed his regret in a heart felt letter I will cherish forever, so they celebrated with us when they got back. We ate Indian food and got cross looks from the waitresses at the Saffron Patch because we had been there for hours and they wanted to close the restaurant for the night.

Also importantly, he set my feet on the career path that has been very kind to me. I have managed several campaigns and currently work for an elected official doing government and media relations. Dr. Logue was “that” teacher to my husband and me. I feel terrible sorrow that we will never get to hear another story, I will never get another special Dr. Logue forty-five minute lecture on the minutia of the dispute between the Greeks and the Turks on the Island of Cyprus, nor will we hear any more of his jokes, extremely witty, extremely dry and extremely unassuming. If you weren’t listening, you may not have caught half of how genuinely funny he was. So to celebrate his life, instead of feeling terrible sorrow for our loss, I will share my favorite Dr. Logue quotes:

“Well! If Pat Buchanan wrote a book about it…” (In response to a student, who, in defending his position, proclaimed “It’s true! Pat Buchanan wrote a book about it!”)

“We don’t discriminate against lawyers. But a law degree isn’t needed for this job.”

“Term limits may not work in the legislature, but they are useful in university departments.”

“You want to go to the Bliss Institute? You know they’re all Republicans there right?” (Said in jest, of course!)

“What you don't unpack within six weeks or so may as well go to the attic since you obviously don't need it.” (Dr. Logue’s advice when Sean and I bought our first house.)

Heidi Swindell