“You and I have a rendezvous with destiny. We will preserve for our children this, the last best hope of man on earth, or we will sentence them to take the first step into a thousand years of darkness. If we fail, at least let our children and our children’s children say of us we justified our brief moment here. We did all that could be done.”These famous words uttered by Ronald Reagan some 40 years ago epitomized his presidency, his life and his service to the world in which he lived. With his passing on Saturday, at the age of 93, our 40th President leaves this existence with the knowledge that he did all he could do, with all he had, for everyone he came in contact with. His death has touched many, but his life touched even more.
Reagan had suffered from Alzheimer’s Disease for more than 10 years.
One person whose life was truly impacted and influenced by “The Great Orator,” was Jacksonville’s own Col. Orval Q. Matteson (Ret.). “Dutch was a great guy,” recalled Matteson, standing amid an array of photographs, documents and memorabilia that highlight the ways his life was touched by Reagan. “I never called him Ronald. In fact, I never knew his name was Ronald until he went into the movies.
“Nope, to us, he was always Dutch.”
As a freshman quarterback at the University of Iowa in 1934, Matteson recalls seeing “a nicely dressed young fellow” walking the sidelines during practices, talking to players and going to great lengths to get to know each one of them personally. When he inquired as to who this man was, he told that Dutch was a local radio personality who announced the games over the airwaves.
While Reagan only spoke to upperclassmen (freshmen were not eligible to play during those days) Matteson admired him from afar during his first year in Iowa City.
“I was amazed that this guy was spending so much time talking with the players and getting to know all of them,” noted Matteson. “He came to at least three practices a week all season long and spent the entire time talking to the players. He never asked about plays or what we were planning for an upcoming game, he was genuinely interested in getting to know each and every guy on the team.”
When Matteson returned for his sophomore campaign, he became a favorite conversationalist for Reagan. By the time he became an honorable mention All-American in his junior season, Matteson and Reagan were speaking more than once a week and had gotten to know each other pretty well.
“Now,” added Matteson, “I am not going to sit here and say we were friends, but we did become good acquaintances. Still, I never understood why he would spend so much time talking to us players. I just did not see the connection.
“It wasn’t until later on that I realized what was going on.”
What was going on exactly was the old game of bait and switch, so to speak. When the team was out-of-town on away games, fans flocked around the radios more than ever to listen to the play-by-play and play the games in their mind’s eye with Reagan’s voice providing the audio. The trick was, however, that the radio station did not have the finances to send Reagan to the games that were not played at home. So, Reagan would receive correspondences throughout the game on a play-by-play basis. He would then use this information, combined with his personal knowledge of the team and its players, and call the game over the radio for the Iowa fans to enjoy.
“You would be amazed at how good the broadcasts were,” added Matteson, who listened to many of the games during his freshman season since he was not allowed to travel with the team. “He made you feel like you were right there watching yourself, because he sounded just like he was right there listening. In reality, he was right downtown at the radio station, but you would swear he was right there, watching the game as it happened and talking to the players throughout the contest.”
Returning to school for his senior season, Matteson noticed that something just did not feel right. He quickly discovered that Reagan was no longer coming around to talk to the players.
“I asked everyone where Dutch was,” recalls Matteson, who returned home during the off-season. “They told me that Dutch had gone to Hollywood.
“A lot of the football players would get together and go to the movie house on Saturdays to see Dutch,” explained Matteson. “By the time his third movie came around, about 90 percent of the guys stopped going, because he was awful. He couldn’t act for sour apples, but I kept going because it was Dutch.
“I got to where I would not watch the movie when Dutch was on screen. I would close my eyes or duck down behind the seat and just listen. That way, I could hear Dutch but did not have to look at his horrible performance.”
The problem, as Matteson saw it, was that Reagan never played characters with his unique personality. Instead, the producers always tried to make him something he was not and he simply could not pull it off.
All the while, Matteson was collecting anything he could get his hands on involving Reagan. Newspaper articles, magazine articles, movies, books, whatever he could find he would follow avidly, so that he did not lose touch with Reagan.
“When I learned that he was going to seek the White House for the first time,” added Matteson, “I attended a Calhoun County Republican Committee meeting to learn more about his candidacy. A gentleman, who I would later learn was Guy Hunt, was on hand letting everyone know about Dutch and asking for our support.”
Wanting to help his friend in any way he could, Matteson contacted Hunt through a letter, explained his position and asked how he could help. The two sat down for a lunch meeting in Anniston, where Hunt asked Matteson to head Reagan’s campaign in the third district.
“I had no idea where the third district was or what I would be doing,” noted Matteson, “but I was eager to help any way I could.”
Later, while attending another rally in Birmingham, Matteson ran into his old pal Reagan again.
“I was waiting outside the door of the hotel where he was staying for him to come out,” said Matteson. “Right across the lobby from the door was the elevator and I knew that eventually he would be coming down and leaving, so I waited.”
When Reagan finally appeared, he took one look at the door and noticed Matteson.
“He hollered out, ‘There’s a guy from Iowa’,” explained Matteson, “and walked right over to me. We talked for a few minutes until he had to leave. That was the last time I ever saw him.”
While he lost that particular bid for the presidency, Reagan would win his next attempt four years later. Once again, Matteson was there, every step of the way, leading the charge in Alabama. The pair continued to correspond by letter until Reagan left office. Matteson was given numerous autographed, personalized photographs from Reagan, along with documents that led Matteson to believe Reagan remembered him from their Iowa days together.
“Dutch Reagan will always be a very important guy in my memory,” concluded Matteson. “We never had a real close relationship, but in my heart he was a dear friend.”
Funeral arrangements for Reagan are being designed to closely mirror those held for Lyndon B. Johnson in 1973. Today, a formal funeral procession with the body being taken by horse-drawn carriage to the Capitol Rotunda will begin at 6 p.m. A state funeral ceremony, a private ceremony for members of Congress and friends of the Reagan family, will begin at 7 p.m. The body will lye in state for a 24-hour period.
On Thursday, a national funeral service will be held at the Washington National Cathedral. President Bush is scheduled to give the eulogy, and former senator John Danforth, an Episcopal priest will officiate. Following the ceremony, the body will be flown from Andrews AFB to Naval Base Ventura County—Point Mogu. A private internment service will be held at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley at 6:15 p.m.
