[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 51 (Friday, April 25, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3725-S3726]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
FROM RAGS TO RADIO RENOWN
Mr. HATCH. Mr. President, Samuel Johnson said that ``Adversity has
ever been considered the state in which a man most easily becomes
acquainted with himself.''
On April 7, Arch L. Madsen, a remarkable broadcast pioneer, died at
the age of 83 in Salt Lake City. Arch's contributions to the world of
radio and television were made all the more noteworthy by the
formidable personal challenges he overcame. In rising above adversity
with the help of an extraordinary woman, his wife Peggy, Arch
discovered the potential within himself that only she and God knew
existed.
The half-century public career of Arch Madsen is a matter of record.
He was president of KSL radio and television stations, founder and
president of the Bonneville International Corp. media empire, and an
influential member of national and international bodies fighting for
freedom of speech. He was appointed by President Reagan to the nine-
member Board for International Broadcasting overseeing the operations
of Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty. It was Arch's dream that truth
carried on airwaves across the Iron Curtain would lead those on the
other side finally to throw off the yoke of totalitarianism. He lived
to see his dream fulfilled in Europe.
For the inspiring story of Arch's private world we are indebted to
his son, Erik H. Madsen, who spoke at the funeral on April 12.
I ask unanimous consent that excerpts from Erik's remarks be printed
in the Record.
There being no objection, the excerpts were ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
Remarks of Erik H. Madsen
I spoke at my mother's funeral, and I thought that was
fair. I didn't think that I would be speaking at my father's
funeral. But I've always done every reasonable thing that
he's asked me to do. And so I'm here at his request.
I am well qualified to speak about him, because I probably
knew him as well as anybody still living. I am his oldest
child and he was a master of delegation. Therefore I have
been his servant, and slave and gofer longer than any other
living person. There is a saying that no man is a hero to his
valet. But my father was a hero to his gofer. . . .
He used to tell me that when he met my mother, he was a
totally defeated and broken man. And I believe that he was.
His physical handicaps have already been mentioned. He had
polio at the age of five, and this made him physically weak
in general.
He was emotionally scarred. He grew up in almost a frontier
situation, on a farm, where he was expected to do the work of
a normal person. And often, he had very little power to do
it.
He was educationally disadvantaged. He had a high school
diploma and two quarters at BYU. But he confessed to me that
when he was a senior in high school, they had called him into
the office and encouraged him not to seek any further
education. Nevertheless, he persisted and went to the BYU.
When he was dismissed from the BYU for his inability to pay
his tuition, he was again told by the representative of the
college that he was really not college material and that he
should focus his life on manual labor. However, being
extremely weak, he found that focus impossible to pursue.
Because he had been somewhat shunned by his peers and
frequently persecuted by them, his skill lay mainly in
occasionally clowning. And I think this may have developed
later in life into his remarkable flamboyancy. But, he was
uncomfortable in society.
And he was destitute. Shortly after my mother met him, he
was admitted to the county hospital for malnutrition, because
he couldn't earn enough money to buy the food he needed for
adequate nutrition. He dressed in worn out overalls--the
clothing of a destitute person.
His career aspirations were limited. He knew how to build
radio sets. And so, he thought that he might become some kind
of low level radio technician.
His religious faith was broken. He believed in God. But he
felt so inferior that he didn't think that he would ever be
able to do enough to qualify for God's love.
It was in this condition, while he was working as a janitor
in one of my mother's father's businesses, that she met him.
If we were to meet him today, as he was then, we would think,
``This is truly an oddball. He is a nerd. He just doesn't fit
into normal society at all. He is one of those physically
weak, mentally weak souls, who has come here with a defective
mind and a defective body. He's not going to live very long.
And it's going to be sad.'' That's what we would have
thought.
No one could understand what my mother saw in him. On their
first date, all he could think to do was to talk about how to
build radio sets. So, he taught her how to build radio sets.
And we still have a drawing on a napkin which she saved from
their first date, showing his explanation to her of a radio
circuit.
On their second date, he talked about how it might be a
good thing for her to look into the LDS church. He told her
that he really couldn't get too involved himself because he
was not good enough. But he told her that she might get
involved, and perhaps find someone else who would be suitable
for her to marry in the temple.
My mother saw that if she married my father she would have
to give up her family's approval and wealth, which would have
provided her with a lifetime of leisure and security. But she
said that she saw qualities in him that interested her. He
seemed to be a hard worker, to work long and diligently, and
she thought she could totally trust him. She believed that he
would be faithful to her for his life, that he would be
faithful to his marriage vows.
When they were married, things looked bad for them. No one
thought their marriage would even last. How could my mother
give all this up? And how could my father earn enough to
provide for two people, when he couldn't even provide for
himself. . . .
There are four themes of my father's life that I would like
to briefly illustrate. They were important to his success.
The first theme is about the technician. My father was a
man who solved electronic problems. The key to his progress
was that first, he never stopped studying about how the
physical laws worked, and later about how political, economic
and social laws worked. How the world worked. But he always
felt outclassed by those with a far better education. And so
he had discovered a secret weapon--he would pray. And he
would pray like nobody else. He would continuously and
obsessively pray until I think he did weary the Lord. And
then it was given to him to know the answer, which usually
came to him in terms of seeing something. He often saw far
beyond that thing, far, far into the future. Not everything
that would happen, but just a laserlike view. He usually saw
something technical.
An example of this occurred when I was 8 years old and I
didn't really think much about it at the time, but I
remembered it and I even wrote it down. He had asked me to
build a crystal set. And when I finally got it right (because
you see he gave me the directions and said build it and left)
it worked. And I asked him, ``How does it work?'' And he
said, ``The electrons have to run through certain patterns in
order to receive the signal. There are patterns inside the
crystal which make them do this.'' And I asked him, ``What
are the patterns?'' And he said, ``We don't really know what
they are, but they are probably like the patterns we make
with our tubes, and resistors, and wires.'' And then he said
something else. He said, ``Someday men will put patterns in
crystals. They will be far more complex than any patterns we
can find in a natural crystal. We'll put whole radio
receivers and television receivers into one tiny crystal.''
And I said, ``Why do you think this?'' And he said. ``I
prayed about something a little different from this and then
I saw it. It will certainly happen.'' And I said, ``When?''
And he said, ``Probably in your lifetime, but I'm not really
sure. When I see into the future, I can't tell exactly how
far I've seen. So, it could be anytime.'' I forgot about this
experience until the transistor was invented and then, I
guess what you'd call the computer chip appeared. And I
remembered everything he'd said about the crystal.
And so this theme of my father's life is sort of a
testimony of the power of prayer, at least to me. And of the
reality that God answer prayers and inspires men to see and
know things which would normally be invisible and unknowable.
This is one of the great gospel truths which enabled my
father to succeed. Many people throughout the world have
wondered at his vision. It wasn't his vision. I mean, it
wasn't his IQ. He received it from a higher source.
The second theme is love. My father attributed all his
successes to my mother. We often talked about why this was
so. He always said, ``When I knew that your mother loved me
and believed in me, my view of the world changed. I decided
to do everything I could to live up to her love and faith in
me. I decided to believe that God loved me too. I decided to
love myself, and to be as good as I could be, and to do all
the good that I could in this world.''
The scriptures indicate that God personifies love. John
said ``Let us love one another,
[[Page S3726]]
for love is of God and everyone that loveth is born of God
and knoweth God.'' (1 John 4:7-8).
So, my father learned to know God because of the love of
one other person. It's a great example. We all could help
each other in this way. My father loved my mother. He loved
the Lord and the church and many people of many creeds and
nationalities. And many of the honors that have come to him
have come because he just reached out to these people.
The third theme is: My father included people. He tried to
understand them, communicate with them, and bring them into
involvement with all of the good things that he could.
My mother told me a story which illustrates this theme in
an unusual way.
At the conclusion of a meeting of the Interamerican
Association of Broadcasters in South America, there was a
celebration of the achievements and agreements which had been
accomplished. The principal participants were broadcasting
leaders from Catholic countries. They were all Roman
Catholics. They were standing in a circle, and each of
them was given a large cup filled with strong, alcoholic
drink. Each man in turn proposed a toast and then drank
the whole cup. There were no substitute drinks available.
As the turn worked its way around to my father, my mother
thought, ``What can he do but refuse?'' It would have been
easy for him to say, ``I am a member of the Church of
Jesus Christ, and we do not consume alcohol.'' The other
participants would certainly have understood. But it would
have put a little chill, a little distance between my
father and his colleagues. And remember, he wanted to be
included and to include them. Instead, when the turn came
to him, he proposed a toast just like everyone else. Then
he poured a little bit of the drink into his hand and
sprinkled it on his head. Then he said, ``I baptize myself
with our toast.'' This made perfect sense to all of them
because that is the way there were all baptized. They all
laughed, and slapped him on the back, and hugged him, and
gave him ``abrazos'' which is what they do.
By seeing life from their Catholic point of view, he had
accepted them, and he had accepted their toast, and he had
still kept the word of wisdom. So, he had a certain way of
including others.
In every business that he managed, he tried to include as
many employees in the process of continuing education and
training and career advancement as he could. He believed in
his own personal growth and he included those he worked with
in growth. He offered them opportunities to participate in
seminars and conferences, to implement the things that they
had learned, and to advance and grow in their careers.
He involved himself and included many others in worthwhile
charitable, humanitarian, economic and civic associations.
Even his vigorous efforts to communicate the benefits and
blessings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
were expressions of his desire not to prove something, but
just to include others in one of the very best things in his
life.
I suppose that this theme of including others is really
just an extension of the theme of love that we talked about
before. But it is a special kind of love that we need a lot
more of in this world. And my father was a good example for
us to follow.
The fourth theme is that of commitment and hard work. My
father always gave 100 percent effort. He was always fully
committed to that which he believed in. He was an exhausting
person. He totally exhausted my mother and all of his
children. He exhausted his co-workers.
And, by the way, he was not a physically strong man. It was
the power of his spirit that exhausted us all. His spirit
picked up his body and carried it around.
A little story illustrates this. When I was away at
college, occasionally my father would come through town, and
he would invite me to go to lunch or dinner. Once he showed
up for lunch with two tired looking younger men who
introduced themselves as follows: ``I'm John Doe. I'm Mr.
Madsen's morning assistant. I work with him from 5 AM to 2
PM''. The other said, ``I'm Jack Doe. I'm Mr. Madsen's
afternoon assistant. I work with him from 2 PM to 11 PM.''
Noticing that they looked tired, I asked them how they were
holding up. John Doe said that they were trying very hard.
They were trying very hard to talk my father into getting a
third man. Because they just couldn't keep it up much longer.
No one could ever wonder about my father's commitment. Now
this wasn't all good. He was a workaholic. And his life was
quite out of balance. It was hard on him. And it was hard on
the people around him. But it was the only thing he knew.
Remember, he thought he was worthless. And he never thought
he had done enough. So he just kept trying to do enough. And
no one could ever wonder about his commitment.
It is written in the Book of Revelation: ``I know thy
works, that thou art neither hot nor cold. I would that thou
wert cold or hot. So then, because thou art lukewarm and
neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth.''
(Revelation 3:15,16)
In other words, the Lord will reject the half-hearted
worshiper.
My father, Arch Madsen, flamboyant, impetuous, out of
balance, and racing almost out of control everyday of his
life, lived a life that was hot. It was incandescently hot.
These illustrations show a few of the themes of my father's
life. There are many other themes, important ones, which we
cannot discuss today. Some examples are:
He was gracious in victory;
He was gracious in defeat;
He was kind to his enemies;
He always looked for blessings and opportunities in the
disaster of his life. He tried many things and failed often.
In a way, his life could be viewed as a series of
tribulations and disaster, which turned into blessing as he
struggled with them and as the Lord helped him.
This is not to say that he was perfect. He had glaring
weaknesses and flaws. We just don't want to talk about them
today.
But these four positive themes we have talked about today
communicate to me two testimonies.
The first is a testimony to the love and faith and courage
that he had. The love and faith and courage of a week,
severely handicapped person. A person who, seeing the
hopelessness of his situation, once he knew that he was
loved, once he knew that somebody loved him and that God
loved him, didn't do the rational thing, the prudent thing.
Instead of giving up, he impetuously attacked, and he never
stopped.
The second testimony is now amazing it is what the Lord can
do through the life of even the humblest, weakest, most
handicapped person--if that person will try to live the
gospel with all the energy that is in him, each and every day
of his life.
In the Doctrine and Covenants it is written, ``Behold, the
Lord requireth the heart and a willing mind, and the willing
and obedient shall eat the good of the land of Zion in these
last days (D&C 64:34).
Arch Madsen's life is also a call to repentance to all of
us who are lukewarm. Whose hearts are set partly upon
righteousness and life and partly upon worldliness and death.
The whole world is starving for the life and happiness which
only comes from living the gospel.
Will we fully live the gospel, and send out a message of
its blessings?
Will we try to communicate it as vigorously as my father
did?
The last stanza of the song he loved ``To Dream the
Impossible Dream,'' goes like this:
And the world will be better for this,
That one man, scorned and covered with scars,
Still strove with his last ounce of courage,
To reach the unreachable star.
And, in the Book of Revelation it is written: ``And he that
overcometh, and keepeth my works to the end, to him will I
give power. . . . And I will give him the morning star
(Revelation 2:26,28) I, Jesus . . . am the bright and morning
star (Revelation 22:16).
I believe and I pray that Arch and Peggy Madsen do keep his
works to the end, and I feel certain that they will be given
the morning star.
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