By Mary Beth West, APR

No big surprise this weekend that Peggy Noonan offered up one of the most poignant and insightful columns on the man who was Ronald Reagan, as the country recognized this past weekend what would have been his 100^th birthday. 

As a child who came of age in the 1980s, I remember many flashbacks of that presidency.  Sitting in my third-grade classroom when another teacher from across the hall burst in to turn on the television coverage, just as the world learned President Reagan has been shot.  The eloquent speeches upon the Challenger disaster and visiting the Berlin Wall.  The tough stance on the air traffic controllers during their strike, which, incidentally, threatened my family’s flight travel plans to Daytona that year (proper motivation for deeply engraining the memory in a then-9-year-old mind).

When I wrote a college scholarship essay in the spring of 1990 prior to my freshman year at UT, my topic was on Reagan.  I knew at that point that I planned to enter the communications profession, so what better subject matter than “the great communicator”? 

Truthfully, though, until doing my research for that paper, I had never heard him described by that phrase before.  What I knew of Ronald Reagan from my childhood created something of an ideal for me – that every president was supposed to be able to speak like him, emote like him, convey a sense of pride, security and confidence, as he did for me. 

I was not of a specific political mindset at the age of 18, mind you . . . my feelings at that time about President Reagan had little if anything to do with political ideology.  It had everything to do, though, with the way he made me feel as a very young person about my country. 

As I read Noonan’s column, it evoked the memory of what resonated most about Reagan to me, during my childhood and continuing to this day: you knew where the man stood on matters. 

Those stances – whether you agreed with them or not – were always exceptionally well-considered and pondered to the finest detail, as demonstrated in the way he explained them to the public, so that you knew that the position he ultimately took had real meaning and backbone behind it. 

It wasn’t something the RNC or any political faction pushed him to say or do.  It wasn’t a strategic check of polling data.  It was his position and his alone.  He wasn’t afraid to be judged for his positions, because he knew he could stand firm on the quality of his own considerations, rooted in the values he held. 

There is a truth to that way of leadership that is undeniable.  In fact, it’s powerful beyond words . . . even enough to spur a critical mass of Democrats to vote for someone as conservative as Reagan certainly was.

Now as a professional communicator myself, specifically in the public relations profession, in which so many people to this day quite erroneously think truth-telling is an oxymoron, I find myself seeking out clients, co-workers and colleagues who operate with this brand of authenticity as their foundation.  They can certainly come from all walks of life and political viewpoints, and they do, and I relish the diversity.

But knowing who they are, what they’re about, and what they stand for are the central touchstones of what make me seek these kinds of people out.  I probably have the 40^th president to thank for making me so consciously aware of how much I value those qualities in others, as well as how much I value this approach in the work I do.