EUREKA, Ill. – You might find no bigger cheerleader for late former President Ronald Reagan than John Morris.
The Executive Director of the Peoria Riverfront Museum now, is also the Founding Director of the Ronald W. Reagan Society at Reagan’s alma mater, Eureka College.
Morris says the college gave Reagan everything he needed to succeed, starting with a controversy: a movement to oust the college’s president.
“This place was filled with these values — these American values — the promise of American opportunity,” said Morris. On the second floor of that building known as the chapel, seventeen-year-old ‘Dutch’ Reagan is called upon to stand upon the stage of that chapel, to stand up for what the students believed was right at the time.”
Reagan graduated from Eureka in 1932, and Morris says everything from acting to playing football, and being an orator, were all things Reagan learned from Eureka College.
“He’s the poster child for what a proud alumnus or alumnae should be of any institution,” said Morris. “He gave money. He returned to campus. He served on the board. Though he was very busy at different periods of time in his Hollywood career, and as Governor of California for eight years, and as President of the United States, he took time to call whomever was the president (of Eureka College) at that time.”
Jerry Schnake, Lead Docent of the Ronald Reagan Boyhood Home in Dixon, agrees.
“Ronald Reagan is an excellent example that you do not have to be stuck in your situation. You can overcome it. It can be done. You can become President of the United States. It doesn’t matter your lot in life — what you were born into. You have total control over your life,” said Schnake.
A memorial service was held on campus Monday — the anniversary of Reagan’s death. A wreath was placed at a bust of the 40th president in a garden bearing his name — the Ronald Reagan Peace Garden — which also has a large piece of the Berlin Wall.
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