Senator Lugar is an Indiana legend, retiring as the longest-serving senator in our State’s history. Senator Lugar is a universally recognized expert in foreign relations and forged strong relationships among his colleagues on both sides of the political aisle.
Senator Richard G. Lugar
Featured Leadership Topics
Understand Leadership
“I define leadership by having vision—that is, to be able to try to see what’s going on presently, but likewise the potential future, trying to create the abilities that could lead one to make a difference.”
Description of the video:
Scarpino: Okay, so I’m going to switch and we’re going to talk specifically about IUPUI. Again for the record and to tell you, in case you don’t know, there’s a soon-to-be-published history of the IU Medical School that’s mostly written…
Lugar: …Oh, great…
Scarpino: … and I’ve had an opportunity to read it draft, and I’m just going to quote one line from that soon-to-be-published study. It says “The election of 1968 changed the political landscape in Indianapolis, and high on the list for the new Republican regime at City Hall and the Statehouse was creation of a new university in Indianapolis.” Well, of course, you were the Mayor then. Why was the creation of a new university in Indianapolis a goal of yours?
Lugar: Well, I envisioned Indianapolis as one of the great cities of America. I saw at a time in which – it was John Gunther who talked about “Indianoplace” – but the problems that Mayor Cavanagh, Mayor Stokes, the others had were getting much worse. It was apparent to me that most large cities in the United States, as a matter of fact, were going to go through a period of not only lack of growth but sort of disintegration in much of what had led to their prominence. One of the things that I was struck with was that, in most large cities of the United States, there was a university that was a central focus. It was a very important part of the leadership of that city, in terms not only of the educational opportunities, but actual work by the president of the universities or the leaders there. And maybe some of it was sort of a romantic vision that we really deserved to have a great university in Indianapolis. We had some universities already; Butler University there, former Indiana Central come to mind. But as I visited with people from Purdue and Indiana University, at least initially they were very pleased with the way things were set up as it was…
Scarpino: …Two extension programs, medical school, dental school…
Lugar: …Yes, yes, and could not see any particular reason to change the formation simply because I was saying, “Indianapolis is great, we’re headed to the stars” and so forth. In one of the publications that I’ve read about the history of IUPUI, they don’t give a date, but they mention a speech that I gave that had a prominent audience toward the fall of 1968, the first year that I was Mayor, indicating that I was very hopeful of creating the University of Indianapolis. So this, of course, brought about a certain amount of discussion, not commotion, about what all this meant. There were many others I’m sure who may have shared that idea, but I was given, at least, credit or blame for raising the issue in such a conspicuous way at that point.
Scarpino: I’m going to keep at that, but I’m going to back up a little bit. As part of the background I did for this interview, I talked to people who knew you during your earlier political career and may still know you now. Among those was John Krauss, Deputy Mayor for a while, and this is a paraphrase of what Mr. Krauss said. We had notes, but he said: “Richard Lugar,” he said, “Was a visionary who understood the power of education as an agent of transformation. The city, especially the downtown, in the 1960s was a bleak place with no character and attraction. Lugar saw that it needed to get beyond just being okay, just being satisfied with mediocrity. The big issue was transforming the Indy downtown. Lugar was all about developing the downtown to create an identity.” The first question, I guess, just to get us started, do you agree with Mr. Krauss’s explanation of you or definition of you as a visionary? Is that one of your strengths?
Lugar: Well, I appreciate his designation. I was, at that time, engaged not only in talking about the University of Indianapolis but also, as the Hotel Association pointed out, I remember I had a meeting with them, oh, a couple of years ago, and they said at the time that I became Mayor, the last hotel in downtown Indianapolis closed.
Scarpino: Yeah, there was no place to stay down there.
Lugar: No, no. From that point onward, of course, Indianapolis has built a tourism hotel industry that’s $4 billion a year, about 70,000 jobs. That’s quite apart from the sports stadiums and Super Bowl and what have you. But the fact is that I was deeply interested in the downtown. It was disintegrating rapidly, not only in terms of employment, but the condition of the buildings and the lack of visitors, tourism situation. So the university was not part of the tourism business, but it came together with the whole idea. I’d already been involved in trying to save the Pacers, in a different story altogether, by getting a downtown building…
Scarpino: …Market Square Arena…
Lugar: …yeah, for them, and that really got us into the big leagues and to stay. There was one opportunity after another of that sort that came along. I thank John for calling this visionary, but these were all elements at least, but in the city that I saw…
Scarpino: Would it be fair, in sort of putting the pieces together and figuring out a little bit about who Richard Lugar is, that maybe part of being a visionary is to see the opportunities and put them together in ways other people didn’t?
Lugar: Sure, yeah, and that’s what we tried to do in each of these cases.
Scarpino: I assume that as you’re running for Mayor, you’ve got a vision for what downtown could be if you’re successful, and a major state university was a part of that. I mean, it also appears to me that part of your agenda was the identity of the city…
Lugar: …Yes…
Scarpino: … no more “Indianoplace.” How did you think that a major university would change the identity of the city? I mean, it’s not a sports team, nobody roots for it; people don’t come to see it from Florida, so?
Lugar: Well, maybe it was in my excitement about my own career through Denison and through Oxford and what I saw could occur really in the lives of people that were a part of a university experience, especially a successful one, a growing one. I was aware of these educational institutions that we had, but maybe it was sort of a romantic vision that a University of Indianapolis was sort of a capstone of this. We have the state capitol here and, ideally, it would be surrounded by scholars, by able students who are going to become leaders who are close to the situation. I’m not sure of all the thoughts that I had at the time, but these were some of them, I’m sure.
Influences and Impacts
“My parents were listening, and they were pushing to make sure we had every opportunity to succeed.”
Description of the video:
Scarpino: Okay, so I’m going to switch and we’re going to talk specifically about IUPUI. Again for the record and to tell you, in case you don’t know, there’s a soon-to-be-published history of the IU Medical School that’s mostly written…
Lugar: …Oh, great…
Scarpino: … and I’ve had an opportunity to read it draft, and I’m just going to quote one line from that soon-to-be-published study. It says “The election of 1968 changed the political landscape in Indianapolis, and high on the list for the new Republican regime at City Hall and the Statehouse was creation of a new university in Indianapolis.” Well, of course, you were the Mayor then. Why was the creation of a new university in Indianapolis a goal of yours?
Lugar: Well, I envisioned Indianapolis as one of the great cities of America. I saw at a time in which – it was John Gunther who talked about “Indianoplace” – but the problems that Mayor Cavanagh, Mayor Stokes, the others had were getting much worse. It was apparent to me that most large cities in the United States, as a matter of fact, were going to go through a period of not only lack of growth but sort of disintegration in much of what had led to their prominence. One of the things that I was struck with was that, in most large cities of the United States, there was a university that was a central focus. It was a very important part of the leadership of that city, in terms not only of the educational opportunities, but actual work by the president of the universities or the leaders there. And maybe some of it was sort of a romantic vision that we really deserved to have a great university in Indianapolis. We had some universities already; Butler University there, former Indiana Central come to mind. But as I visited with people from Purdue and Indiana University, at least initially they were very pleased with the way things were set up as it was…
Scarpino: …Two extension programs, medical school, dental school…
Lugar: …Yes, yes, and could not see any particular reason to change the formation simply because I was saying, “Indianapolis is great, we’re headed to the stars” and so forth. In one of the publications that I’ve read about the history of IUPUI, they don’t give a date, but they mention a speech that I gave that had a prominent audience toward the fall of 1968, the first year that I was Mayor, indicating that I was very hopeful of creating the University of Indianapolis. So this, of course, brought about a certain amount of discussion, not commotion, about what all this meant. There were many others I’m sure who may have shared that idea, but I was given, at least, credit or blame for raising the issue in such a conspicuous way at that point.
Scarpino: I’m going to keep at that, but I’m going to back up a little bit. As part of the background I did for this interview, I talked to people who knew you during your earlier political career and may still know you now. Among those was John Krauss, Deputy Mayor for a while, and this is a paraphrase of what Mr. Krauss said. We had notes, but he said: “Richard Lugar,” he said, “Was a visionary who understood the power of education as an agent of transformation. The city, especially the downtown, in the 1960s was a bleak place with no character and attraction. Lugar saw that it needed to get beyond just being okay, just being satisfied with mediocrity. The big issue was transforming the Indy downtown. Lugar was all about developing the downtown to create an identity.” The first question, I guess, just to get us started, do you agree with Mr. Krauss’s explanation of you or definition of you as a visionary? Is that one of your strengths?
Lugar: Well, I appreciate his designation. I was, at that time, engaged not only in talking about the University of Indianapolis but also, as the Hotel Association pointed out, I remember I had a meeting with them, oh, a couple of years ago, and they said at the time that I became Mayor, the last hotel in downtown Indianapolis closed.
Scarpino: Yeah, there was no place to stay down there.
Lugar: No, no. From that point onward, of course, Indianapolis has built a tourism hotel industry that’s $4 billion a year, about 70,000 jobs. That’s quite apart from the sports stadiums and Super Bowl and what have you. But the fact is that I was deeply interested in the downtown. It was disintegrating rapidly, not only in terms of employment, but the condition of the buildings and the lack of visitors, tourism situation. So the university was not part of the tourism business, but it came together with the whole idea. I’d already been involved in trying to save the Pacers, in a different story altogether, by getting a downtown building…
Scarpino: …Market Square Arena…
Lugar: …yeah, for them, and that really got us into the big leagues and to stay. There was one opportunity after another of that sort that came along. I thank John for calling this visionary, but these were all elements at least, but in the city that I saw…
Scarpino: Would it be fair, in sort of putting the pieces together and figuring out a little bit about who Richard Lugar is, that maybe part of being a visionary is to see the opportunities and put them together in ways other people didn’t?
Lugar: Sure, yeah, and that’s what we tried to do in each of these cases.
Scarpino: I assume that as you’re running for Mayor, you’ve got a vision for what downtown could be if you’re successful, and a major state university was a part of that. I mean, it also appears to me that part of your agenda was the identity of the city…
Lugar: …Yes…
Scarpino: … no more “Indianoplace.” How did you think that a major university would change the identity of the city? I mean, it’s not a sports team, nobody roots for it; people don’t come to see it from Florida, so?
Lugar: Well, maybe it was in my excitement about my own career through Denison and through Oxford and what I saw could occur really in the lives of people that were a part of a university experience, especially a successful one, a growing one. I was aware of these educational institutions that we had, but maybe it was sort of a romantic vision that a University of Indianapolis was sort of a capstone of this. We have the state capitol here and, ideally, it would be surrounded by scholars, by able students who are going to become leaders who are close to the situation. I’m not sure of all the thoughts that I had at the time, but these were some of them, I’m sure.
Storytelling
“I envisioned Indianapolis as one of the great cities of America.”
Description of the video:
Scarpino: Okay, so I’m going to switch and we’re going to talk specifically about IUPUI. Again for the record and to tell you, in case you don’t know, there’s a soon-to-be-published history of the IU Medical School that’s mostly written…
Lugar: …Oh, great…
Scarpino: … and I’ve had an opportunity to read it draft, and I’m just going to quote one line from that soon-to-be-published study. It says “The election of 1968 changed the political landscape in Indianapolis, and high on the list for the new Republican regime at City Hall and the Statehouse was creation of a new university in Indianapolis.” Well, of course, you were the Mayor then. Why was the creation of a new university in Indianapolis a goal of yours?
Lugar: Well, I envisioned Indianapolis as one of the great cities of America. I saw at a time in which – it was John Gunther who talked about “Indianoplace” – but the problems that Mayor Cavanagh, Mayor Stokes, the others had were getting much worse. It was apparent to me that most large cities in the United States, as a matter of fact, were going to go through a period of not only lack of growth but sort of disintegration in much of what had led to their prominence. One of the things that I was struck with was that, in most large cities of the United States, there was a university that was a central focus. It was a very important part of the leadership of that city, in terms not only of the educational opportunities, but actual work by the president of the universities or the leaders there. And maybe some of it was sort of a romantic vision that we really deserved to have a great university in Indianapolis. We had some universities already; Butler University there, former Indiana Central come to mind. But as I visited with people from Purdue and Indiana University, at least initially they were very pleased with the way things were set up as it was…
Scarpino: …Two extension programs, medical school, dental school…
Lugar: …Yes, yes, and could not see any particular reason to change the formation simply because I was saying, “Indianapolis is great, we’re headed to the stars” and so forth. In one of the publications that I’ve read about the history of IUPUI, they don’t give a date, but they mention a speech that I gave that had a prominent audience toward the fall of 1968, the first year that I was Mayor, indicating that I was very hopeful of creating the University of Indianapolis. So this, of course, brought about a certain amount of discussion, not commotion, about what all this meant. There were many others I’m sure who may have shared that idea, but I was given, at least, credit or blame for raising the issue in such a conspicuous way at that point.
Scarpino: I’m going to keep at that, but I’m going to back up a little bit. As part of the background I did for this interview, I talked to people who knew you during your earlier political career and may still know you now. Among those was John Krauss, Deputy Mayor for a while, and this is a paraphrase of what Mr. Krauss said. We had notes, but he said: “Richard Lugar,” he said, “Was a visionary who understood the power of education as an agent of transformation. The city, especially the downtown, in the 1960s was a bleak place with no character and attraction. Lugar saw that it needed to get beyond just being okay, just being satisfied with mediocrity. The big issue was transforming the Indy downtown. Lugar was all about developing the downtown to create an identity.” The first question, I guess, just to get us started, do you agree with Mr. Krauss’s explanation of you or definition of you as a visionary? Is that one of your strengths?
Lugar: Well, I appreciate his designation. I was, at that time, engaged not only in talking about the University of Indianapolis but also, as the Hotel Association pointed out, I remember I had a meeting with them, oh, a couple of years ago, and they said at the time that I became Mayor, the last hotel in downtown Indianapolis closed.
Scarpino: Yeah, there was no place to stay down there.
Lugar: No, no. From that point onward, of course, Indianapolis has built a tourism hotel industry that’s $4 billion a year, about 70,000 jobs. That’s quite apart from the sports stadiums and Super Bowl and what have you. But the fact is that I was deeply interested in the downtown. It was disintegrating rapidly, not only in terms of employment, but the condition of the buildings and the lack of visitors, tourism situation. So the university was not part of the tourism business, but it came together with the whole idea. I’d already been involved in trying to save the Pacers, in a different story altogether, by getting a downtown building…
Scarpino: …Market Square Arena…
Lugar: …yeah, for them, and that really got us into the big leagues and to stay. There was one opportunity after another of that sort that came along. I thank John for calling this visionary, but these were all elements at least, but in the city that I saw…
Scarpino: Would it be fair, in sort of putting the pieces together and figuring out a little bit about who Richard Lugar is, that maybe part of being a visionary is to see the opportunities and put them together in ways other people didn’t?
Lugar: Sure, yeah, and that’s what we tried to do in each of these cases.
Scarpino: I assume that as you’re running for Mayor, you’ve got a vision for what downtown could be if you’re successful, and a major state university was a part of that. I mean, it also appears to me that part of your agenda was the identity of the city…
Lugar: …Yes…
Scarpino: … no more “Indianoplace.” How did you think that a major university would change the identity of the city? I mean, it’s not a sports team, nobody roots for it; people don’t come to see it from Florida, so?
Lugar: Well, maybe it was in my excitement about my own career through Denison and through Oxford and what I saw could occur really in the lives of people that were a part of a university experience, especially a successful one, a growing one. I was aware of these educational institutions that we had, but maybe it was sort of a romantic vision that a University of Indianapolis was sort of a capstone of this. We have the state capitol here and, ideally, it would be surrounded by scholars, by able students who are going to become leaders who are close to the situation. I’m not sure of all the thoughts that I had at the time, but these were some of them, I’m sure.
About Senator Richard G. Lugar
Former United States Senator Richard G. Lugar is the President of The Lugar Center, a non-profit organization focusing on global food security, WMD nonproliferation, aid effectiveness, and bipartisan governance. Senator Lugar serves as a Professor of Practice and Distinguished Scholar at the School of Global and International Studies at Indiana University. He also serves as a distinguished faculty member in the Department of History and Political Science and leads the Richard G. Lugar Symposium for Tomorrow’s Leaders at the University of Indianapolis.
A fifth generation Hoosier who left the United States Senate as the longest-serving member of Congress in Indiana history, Senator Lugar is recognized as a gifted local and state leader, as well as a respected national and international statesman. During his tenure in the United States Senate, he exercised leadership on critical issues such as food security, nuclear non-proliferation, energy independence, and free trade. He holds 46 honorary degrees from colleges and universities in 15 states and the District of Columbia, and he was the fourth person ever named Outstanding Legislator by the American Political Science Association. He was the 2005 recipient of the American Foreign Service Association Lifetime Contributions to American Diplomacy Award and the 2016 recipient of the J. William Fulbright Prize for International Understanding. Her Majesty The Queen of England bestowed upon Senator Lugar the rank of honorary Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in honor of his work to make the world more secure from weapons of mass destruction and his commitment to the U.S.-U.K. alliance. President Barack Obama named Senator Lugar a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Senator Lugar graduated first in his class at both Shortridge High School in Indianapolis and Denison University in Granville, Ohio. He attended Pembroke College at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar, studying politics, philosophy and economics. Lugar volunteered for the U.S. Navy in 1957, ultimately serving as an intelligence briefer for Admiral Arleigh Burke, chief of Naval Operations.
Explore the complete oral history of Richard LugarLeaders Are Readers
“I became a kind of voracious reader, at least a very steady one, taking out the books, and with a lot of biographies of people, learning about their lives, what had happened to them, and what relevance there might be for my own life.”
