Jeff Linder has lobbied at Indiana's Statehouse for three years.He's heard politicians complain about each other many times.
But when they were complaining about the governor, they alwaysbegan their sentences with, "You know I love Frank O'Bannon,but..."
O'Bannon, who died Saturday at age 73 in a Chicago hospital,always wanted to do the right thing for Indiana, said Linder, BallState's associate vice president in charge of governmentalrelations. Linder and others said the Democratic governor alwaysput the state's future at the top of his priority list by advancingeducation at all levels, helping institutions like Ball StateUniversity excel.
'THE EDUCATION GOVERNOR'
Members of the Ball State community who knew O'Bannon said hehoped his legacy would revolve around education, and he worked hardto earn that legacy.
"He liked to think of himself as the education governor," BlaineBrownell, president of Ball State University, said. "He dideverything he could possibly do to protect education."
O'Bannon spoke at Brownell's inauguration in 2000. Brownell saidhe was impressed that the governor and his wife, Judy O'Bannon,attended the event, sitting behind Brownell's parents.
"They were just really decent people," Brownell said. "That madethem great ambassadors for the state of Indiana."
State Rep. Tiny Adams, D-Muncie, said O'Bannon always foughthard for education when working with state budgets.
"The one point he made was every student should be afforded acollege education," Adams said.
Phil Bremen, an instructor in the Department ofTelecommunications at Ball State, was O'Bannon's press secretaryduring his first term in office and saw the commitment to educationfirst hand.
"(Education) was the one thing we worked on more than anythingelse," Bremen said.
Bremen helped O'Bannon build the Community College of Indianaand the Education Roundtable in those first four years.
The Community College of Indiana, a partnership betweenVincennes University and Ivy Tech State College, was designed tobring education closer to the people who needed it, Bremen said.The Education Roundtable, meanwhile, was born out of an educationpackage the state legislature would not pass for O'Bannon.
"Rather than giving up, he personally sat down key people onboth sides of the issue," Bremen said. "People who had been bitterenemies."
'FRANK'
Mediation was always one of O'Bannon's strengths. Don Park, BallState's vice president of university advancement, was a roommate ofO'Bannon's when both were elected state senators in the early'70s.
O'Bannon, who watched his father work in the senate, was aheadof the other freshman senators when it came to knowledge of stategovernment, Park said.
Unlike the other politicians, Park said, O'Bannon would not makeaggressive statements. Instead, he was always the person who wouldtry and make people work together.
"(He was) respected because of that," Park said. "I'm not surethat Frank ever had an enemy."
Bremen did not actually meet O'Bannon until he was tapped to bethe governor's press secretary. His impression of O'Bannon comesfrom the four years he worked with him.
"I have the deepest admiration for the guy," Bremen said. "He'sa genuinely moral person. About the worst thing you could do islie."
O'Bannon, a native of Harrison County, worked as a lawyer and anewspaperman before entering state politics. He served for twoterms as lieutenant governor from 1988 to 1996 under former Gov.Evan Bayh. In that first campaign, O'Bannon showed the selflessnature he was famous for by abandoning his own campaign forgovernor and signing on as Bayh's second.
He followed Bayh in the governor's office in 1996, earningre-election in 2000. It was the first time the Democratic Partyheld the Statehouse for four consecutive terms since the CivilWar.
Linder said part of O'Bannon's appeal was that he didn't thinkof himself as any different from any other person in Indiana.
"Frank was never that way," Linder said. "It was just always'Frank.' He felt like other people's jobs ... were all importanttoo."
O'Bannon wasn't afraid to bring himself down to the common man'slevel, either. Tony Costello, a distinguished professor ofarchitecture, worked with Frank and Judy O'Bannon on ahouse-building project in Indianapolis. Costello has seen otherpoliticians show up at projects like that one for photoopportunities, but not for more than 15 minutes. The O'Bannonsstayed for three hours to help work on the porch's railing.
"They were swinging hammers and really contributing to theconstruction of the house," Costello said.
Senior Adam Stant, former president of College Democrats, workedbriefly at the Statehouse. Once and a while he would get to speakto the governor.
"He's a real gentleman," Stant said. "That's the only word thatI can think of that really fits him."
O'Bannon was remembered in these ways by Hoosiers all over thestate this weekend. Flags moved to half-staff and churchgoersprayed for him and his family. Political opponents mourned for aman who perhaps didn't see things the way they did, but had thesame interest in mind -- not himself, but the state.
Said Adams, "I think the state of Indiana owes a lot to Gov.O'Bannon."
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