Deeper Dive - Fathers of Philanthrophy - Herbert Hoover - March 7, 2023

President Hoover probably had a bigger impact on society before he was ever elected to the highest office in the land.

The big assignment in Mrs. Watson’s Sixth Grade class was the President Research Paper.  It was something of legend where each sixth grader at Kyle School needed to write a report on one of the men that held the office.  The trick was that Mrs. Watson assigned the President to you; you were completely at her mercy on how your elementary academic career was going to end.  

The day of the big reveal of whom I was going to study, I was nervous.  Who was I going to have to write my essay about?  I was thinking about the big ones, Franklin Roosevelt. Abraham Lincoln, George Washington.  I’d even settle for a Harry Truman or Dwight Eisenhower, Grandpa had always spoken highly of them.  

Then it came.  I was given Herbert Hoover.  For a sixth-grader, Hoover had to be the absolute worst choice.  He was the one in charge  during the Great Depression.  How could I make this guy look good when everything happened that was so bad?  Little did I know that Herbert Hoover probably did more before he was President than he did while he was President.