The Renaissance
Page 5
October 2014
LSMSA teacher works with national politician Isabela Walkin Staff Writer One of the Louisiana School for Math, Science, and the Arts’s very own has rubbed shoulders with a prominent national politician and past presidential candidate. Dr. David Wood, foreign language faculty member of LSMSA, met and worked with the young Mitt Romney when the two served as missionaries for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in and around Paris, France, in 1968. Wood and Romney lived in the same mission home, a headquarters for the missionaries during their stay, though they had different assignments. “He [Romney] was the assistant to the president [of the mission]. He helped the president with everything that had to do with the missionaries, the young 19 through 21, 22 year old guys or gals,” said Wood. “My assignment was to work with the leaders of the church,
the core French leaders of the area.” Despite their different mission goals, the two did interact in the mission home, chatting and occasionally going out to eat together. “Mitt was energetic. He was quick to smile and laugh - he had a good sense of humor,” said Wood. “He wasn’t an overly serious person. He was dedicated to the work and just fun to be around.” Although Romney had not yet reached his current level of national fame at the time of the mission, he came from an affluent family. His father, George Romney, was an influential American businessman and politician, having been governor of Michigan, a member of President Nixon’s cabinet, and chairman and president of American Motors Corporation. Romney, just 21 years of age at the time, was then known because of his father’s national prominence, but he soon started proving
Romney and Wood with their fellow missionaries.
Romney and Wood (standing sixth from the left) with their fellow missionaries. Courtesy of Jordan Thibodeaux
his own competence for leadership. “He had a lot of leadership ability. That was obvious, way back then,” said Wood. “He had been a district leader, that is, in charge of four or six missionaries in a city, and then worked his way up. The position he held at the end of his mission was about as high a position as a missionary could hold. Before he even went on the mission, I think he was going to Stanford.” Wood has not spoken
Courtesy of Jordan Thibodeaux
with Romney since the trip, but he has been very impressed with what his fellow missionary has accomplished. “He has held some important leadership positions in our church in the area of the country where he lives,” said Wood. Wood also offered insight into Romney’s political career. “I don’t think he was born and bred as a politician. He’s an intelligent person; he wants to make a difference and help
people. He’s very altruistic, but I don’t think he was a hardcore politician with Machiavellian instincts. I think he maybe tried to please too many different factions in the Republican Party. I think if he could have run as a moderate Republican, he would have been successful [in his campaign for president],” said Wood. Whether Romney is president or not, Wood’s relationship with him surely gives him a story to tell.
Dr. Wood, beaming in his office. Taken by Elizabeth Fontenot