By MIKE MAGEE
My father and Arnold Palmer had an amazing deal in widespread – and none of it concerned golf. They had been each males of religion and lived into their 80’s. My father was Catholic, and Arnold Palmer was Presbyterian. However on the day that Palmer died (September 25, 2016), Benedictine Archabbot Douglas R. Nowicki of St. Vincent’s Archabbey in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, was at his bedside.
Nowicki and Palmer’s friendship dated again a half century. He and his spouse would typically attend 7:30 a.m. Sunday Mass on the abbey.
On the time of Palmer’s dying, the Benedictine monk mentioned, “Arnie form of appealed to everybody. There have been no limitations, race, colour, creed — these had been issues that by no means entered into his thoughts. He was welcoming to everyone and handled everybody with great heat and respect.”
However eight years and one month after his dying, Palmer’s daughter, Peg Palmer Wears felt compelled to stand up and defend her father’s honor. Within the Latrobe Airport, named after him, Donald Trump (in accordance with FOX Information) “mentioned the golf legend’s manhood and the way different gamers would react to Palmer within the showers.” Particularly, in an effort to narrate to the native viewers, Trump mentioned, “He was all man. This man was so sturdy and hard, and I refused to say it, however when he took showers with the opposite execs, they got here out of there; they mentioned, ‘Oh my God, that’s unbelievable.’”
The response from his daughter, a registered Impartial from North Carolina, was swift. She labeled his phrases, “disrespectful” and “inappropriate”… “appropriating somebody he admires to bolster his personal picture, individuals deserve higher.” Her phrases in protection of her father, who was not there to talk for himself, known as to thoughts my sister Sue’s Eulogy to our father. It centered on the values and qualities in him that she admired – honesty, arduous work, compassion, integrity, humility, kindness, and love for others.
In a single memorable flip in Church the day of our dad’s burial, Sue mentioned, “He taught us honesty. I used to be a little bit woman when Dad first impressed upon me the significance of honesty. He associated a narrative to me about his personal childhood. He had gone to the shop and when he paid the shopkeeper there was some query concerning the quantity of change he was due. He mentioned extra. The shopkeeper was unsure however took Dad’s phrase as a result of he mentioned, ‘He had by no means recognized Invoice Magee to inform a lie.’ He completed that story by saying to me, ‘There’s nothing extra essential than honesty. Individuals might not at all times like what it’s a must to say, but when they’ll imagine you then they are going to at all times belief you.’ That was a lesson Dad taught again and again. His private honesty and his integrity had been past reproach.”
I imagine my sister Sue and Peg would see eye to eye. Sue mentioned of our Dad, “He was arduous working. He was a person with coronary heart. He was a gentleman.” In Mr. Palmer’s protection, Peg mentioned a lot the identical. When requested what her dad would have thought if he had been alive to listen to Trump’s remarks, she replied, “He would have thought ‘He’s not as good as we thought he was’ and stroll out of the room. What would my dad consider Donald Trump right this moment? I believe he’d cringe.”
Each my father and Arnold Palmer had been lifelong Republicans, conservatives, served within the army, had been nice admirers of Ronald Reagan, and attendees at Catholic Sunday lots. However I imagine they had been additionally sensible sufficient to know that no coverage achieve – on federal funding of personal colleges, or limits on abortion and contraception, or decrease taxes, or conservative Supreme Court docket Justices – would ever be sufficient of a rationalization to sign to an evil and dishonest man like Trump that the traits he embodies are acceptable for America.
Trump must be surrounded by huge sea of MAGA hat carrying admirers for affirmation. How antithetical to the person who’s identify he took in useless final week. In distinction, Archabbot Nowicki recalled a go to with Mr. Palmer on the Bay Hill Golf Membership in Orlando, Florida this manner: “He had given one in every of our graduation addresses. He talked concerning the significance of decorum. He mentioned, ‘Which means while you enter a room that you just take your hat off.’” On the membership, a person “got here into the eating room and had his hat on. Arnie mentioned very gently to him, ‘Will you please take off your hat?’ He had that respect for individuals.”
If Invoice Magee and Arnold Palmer had been alive right this moment, I imagine they might by no means vote for Trump – By no means, By no means, By no means!
Mike Magee MD is a Medical Historian and an everyday contributor to THCB. He’s the writer of CODE BLUE: Inside America’s Medical Industrial Advanced (Grove/2020).
