Baldrige Embodied ‘Best of American Spirit’--Reagan

WASHINGTON — President Reagan eulogized the late Commerce Secretary Malcolm Baldrige today as the architect of his Administration’s trade policy and a straight-talking and honest cowboy who “embodied the best of the American spirit.”

“The day I called Mac Baldrige to ask him to join the Cabinet, I was told I’d have to call back because he was out on his horse. . . . Right then I knew he was the man I wanted,” Reagan said at the memorial service for Baldrige at Washington’s National Cathedral.

The President, accompanied by his wife, Nancy, praised Baldrige as a successful businessman who never forgot his early days roping calves.

“He treated everyone with the same courtesy and respect, from his driver to the President,” Reagan said. “Despite his many remarkable successes, worldly success was not the way he measured people . . . honesty, courage, industry and humility, these were his yardsticks.”

The 64-year-old Baldrige, whose passion for rodeo was a colorful sidelight to his successful business and political careers, died Saturday of injuries suffered when his horse reared and fell on him as he was practicing for a rodeo steer-roping contest at a Northern California ranch.

Sen. John C. Danforth (R-Mo.), an ordained Episcopal priest, conducted the service at the request of Baldrige’s wife, Midge.

The President noted that Baldrige had campaigned to get government bureaucrats to write in plain English.

“The thing he liked about cowboys was that they didn’t talk unless they had something to say, and when they said something, they meant it,” Reagan said. “To him, simple language did not mark a simple mind, but a strong and fearless one.”

Reagan, the only speaker at the 30-minute ceremony, said he could always count on Baldrige to give him “the truth as he saw it, no matter how unpleasant or unpopular.”

“There were times when the Cabinet would come down on an issue 12 to 1 and he was on the short end. But I knew if he believed something that others didn’t, he wouldn’t rein himself in and follow the herd, he would step forward and be clear,” Reagan said.

In addition to the President and his wife, mourners included Vice President George Bush and his wife, Barbara, close family friends, Cabinet members, officials from the diplomatic corps and members of Congress. Many of Baldrige’s cowboy friends, with whom he would often compete in weekend roping contests, served as ushers.