WILLERTZ ON PHIL HART: Ex-Bay City Mayor's Biography of Senator Published
Why Senate Office Building is Named for Michigan Statesman
May 12, 2013
By: Dave Rogers
U.S. Senator Philip A. Hart, The Prince in the Senate.
John R. Willertz, author.
At a hearing in the wake of the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, Senator Phil Hart asked segregationist Gov. George Wallace of Alabama: "Governor, do you think heaven is segregated?"
A remarkable recollection of U.S. Senator Philip A. Hart was produced by John R. Willertz, former Bay City mayor and History professor at Saginaw Valley State University (SVSU) and completed by his wife, Jackie, of Bay City.
The book is a poignant tale in two ways: it was substantially completed but Willertz had not made arrangements for publishing it when he died 12 years ago at age 63.
Senator Hart had died in 1976, at age 64.
When Philip Hart retired from the Senate in 1976, his colleagues praised him with these tributes: "true champion of the consumer, missionary for civil rights, rare visionary of the country, fair adversary and gracious opponent, crusader for justice and a giant in any century."
One of his notable attributes was his ability to work across the aisle, to craft bipartisan compromises especially on key legislation.
As a final tribute, Phil's fellow Senators voted to name the new Senate Office Building after him with the endearing sentiment: "the Senate seat will be replaced, but not the man."
The book, entitled "A Prince in the Senate: A Biography of U.S. Senator Philip A. Hart, Jr.," was recently published by Jackie Willertz, widow of the late professor. The book's foreword is by former Senator and Republican Presidential candidate Robert Dole, who was hospitalized with Hart when both were injured in World War II.
Willertz was born in Mt. Clemens in 1939. He earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Detroit and master's degree as well as PhD in European History from the University of Michigan.
While teaching at SVSU he was elected three times as mayor of Bay City and was a highly popular figure intensely interested in local public affairs as well as national and international issues.
Another book on Sen. Hart, "The Conscience of the Senate," by Michael O'Brien, was published in 1995 by Michigan State University Press.
The Willertz book is notable for its detail and insights about the senator; obviously the author was highly dedicated to gathering every fact that anyone would ever want to know about Philip A. Hart. And he succeeded.
As Jackie Willertz comments in the book: "It was his 25 year labor of love writing this book." Willertz had many private conversations with the senator during his research.
The book is crammed with inside details about Sen. Hart's leadership on key issues such as civil rights, housing, voting rights, equal pay, the environment. Key players and Hart's relationships with them are covered so the reader thinks Dr. Willertz must have been there himself. Visit in this book with such figures as Ted Kennedy, Bob Dole, Martin Luther King, and Richard Nixon.
The book is a treasure in 432 pages that will be dissected by political scholars for decades; each reviewer surely will find gems from Phil Hart's life that were previously unknown.
John Willertz has left a legacy of documentation of a senator whose career will be undying, and his work creates its own legacy for Willertz himself.
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