Reagan Eulogizes Baldrige as ‘the Best’

President Reagan eulogized Malcolm Baldrige on Wednesday as a man who “embodied the best of the American spirit” as a former rodeo cowboy, a successful businessman and as a commerce secretary who helped shape U.S. economic policy “during years when that policy moved to center stage.”

The President’s eulogy, the only one offered at an austere 30-minute memorial service at Washington’s National Cathedral, was delivered to about 1,600 mourners, including Vice President George Bush, members of Congress and the Cabinet and some of the cowboy friends with whom Baldrige often competed in weekend roping exercises.

No Decision on Successor

Baldrige, 64, died Saturday of injuries suffered when his horse fell and rolled over him as he was practicing for a rodeo steer-roping contest at a Northern California ranch. He was the first Cabinet member to die in office since 1948. And, at his death, he was one of only three members of Reagan’s original Cabinet still in office. White House officials have said that Reagan will make no decision on a new commerce secretary until after the funeral services, scheduled for today in Woodbury, Conn., Baldrige’s home.

At the request of Baldrige’s wife, Midge, the memorial service in the cavernous English Gothic cathedral was conducted by Sen. John C. Danforth (R-Mo.), an Episcopal priest. At the end of the service, Reagan and the First Lady paused briefly in the cathedral to speak with Baldrige’s wife, two daughters, two grandchildren, a brother and a sister.

Reagan’s six-minute address from the cathedral’s high carved marble pulpit stressed three interrelated themes: Baldrige’s plain-spoken directness, his devotion to a vigorous life and his professional accomplishments.

Tells Anecdote

Reagan began with the anecdote, frequently cited since Baldrige’s death, that, when he called Baldrige to ask him to join his incoming Administration, “he was out on his horse roping and couldn’t come to the phone.”

“Right then, I knew he was the kind of man I wanted,” Reagan said.

He said that, after Baldrige took the job, the commerce secretary left standing orders that only the President or “any cowboy who rang up” was to be put through to him at any time. “Well, I’m honored to have been in that company,” Reagan said. “Mac, as we know, left us while he was doing what he loved best. And now, whenever any of us wants to ring him up, we’ll have to remind ourselves that he’s out on a horse somewhere and we’ll just have to wait.

“It’s a gift to be simple, we’re told,” Reagan said. “If that means to hold simple, strong and decent values, Mac had that gift.”

He recalled Baldrige’s passion for plain speech, which showed up in a campaign to banish bureaucratic jargon from Commerce Department memos. “He once said that 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.

“To him, simple language did not mark a simple mind, but a strong and fearless one.”

Shaker Hymn Played

That theme was struck again in the Shaker hymn “Simple Gifts,” played as the postlude to the service.

Reagan praised Baldrige for his role in assertively representing the Administration’s economic policies at a time when international trade had became a volatile issue.

Baldrige “helped shape our policy towards East-West trade in a period in which that was a source of new questions and concerns,” Reagan said. “And perhaps the least recognized of his major achievements was the securing of trade ties with China. In just four years since his 1983 visit to China, trade has become a pillar of the Sino-American relationship.”