The Marge O'Laughlin: Rule of 1968... and Today
By: Charles T. Richardson
It is my honor today to toast an Indiana icon, Marjorie O’Laughlin, someone who has had an enormous impact for good on the civic life of Indianapolis and Indiana for over half a Century. First elected in 1967 as Indianapolis City Clerk on the legendary ticket that launched another person of monumental impact, Richard Green Lugar. Lugar was Marge O’Laughlin’s high school classmate at Shortridge High School in Indianapolis.
I am wearing today the button I wore on election day 1967 as I worked the polls on Indiana Avenue in downtown Indianapolis for Lugar and O’Laughlin. They won! She served two terms as Clerk.
She was elected State-wide as Clerk of the State Courts in 1978. I have on my other lapel one of the reelect buttons from 1982. Marge O’Laughlin won that race too. She was the person who swore in hundreds of Indiana lawyers, including several watching today. Then elected, again State-wide, as Treasurer of Indiana in 1986 and reelected in 1990. After leaving that office, Ms. O’Laughlin served as Treasurer of the Marion County Health & Hospital Corporation.
Marge O’Laughlin was and is a ground-breaker. Actually, a GLASS breaker of every political, government and business glass ceiling you can imagine and an example of the best in public service for women and men everywhere.
Now I hope that all of you watching this tribute will read the article about Marge and the Marge O’Laughlin Rule that is now on the Women4Change website. It will change your life as it did mine. And that’s where I would like to start. Because that article describes an encounter between Marge O’Laughlin and a pathetic recent college graduate by the name of Charlie Richardson in the summer of 1969. It was on the 25th Floor of the City-County Building in Indianapolis outside Mayor Lugar’s office where I had started a day before. Mitch Daniels and Paul Mannweiler were with me.
The incident came close to ending my anticipated law school career. Nay my life. I have never known such fear. Until I was saved 24 hours later by Marge O’Laughlin’s wisdom, judgment, kindness, and example when she called a meeting with me and Mayor Lugar to clear the air and grant me a pardon. Her example in that meeting is captured and immortalized by what scores of lawyers in this town call “The Marge O’Laughlin Rule.” Take responsibility. Don’t deflect. Don’t hedge. Own it. Stand tall and fess up.
It's a Rule that United States Judge Sarah Evans Barker demanded I write down and publish—I may have been stone cold green and ignorant in 1969 but I am smart enough by now to follow the edict of a federal judge who also happens to be an icon and a big time ground and glass breaker. Again, read the article, memorize the Rule, and reflect every day on how you can be a better professional, leader and person by following Marge O’Laughlin.
Senator Lugar said in one of his books something that I have remembered always and recited so many times. He said, “Growing up in Indiana, one learns early on that talent and accomplishments count—but honesty and integrity count more.” He could have been talking—probably was—about the woman we honor today who has it all. Talent, accomplishments, and most of all honesty, integrity, and moral clarity like no other. And perhaps her greatest achievement, raising seven amazing children. Alone. Indeed, she was pregnant when she first ran for office—unheard of in 1967. That’s Marge O’Laughlin. Or, to put it in language we all can understand, Marge O’Laughlin is a dime among nickels.
Winston Churchill said that meeting FDR was like opening a fine bottle of champagne, but that talking to him was like drinking it. And so it is with Marge O’Laughlin. Marge couldn’t be with us today, but Women4Change Indiana will look for a way for all of us to get together in person when we can pull that off safely. We want to talk with Marge and drink the fine Marge O champagne. Perhaps even giving her a birthday toast honoring her 92d birthday just past and still going strong!
Churchill also famously observed that, “you make a living by what you do, but you make a life by what you give.” Marge O’Lauglin has given her professional and personal life to the welfare of the people of Indiana for half a century, and we are all better off for that contribution. Far far better off. I and all of us thank our lucky stars every single day that Marge O’Laughlin is a Hoosier. She is our City and State’s best. I pray we are growing more leaders like her and Richard Lugar every day—for that, my friends, is our greatest hope of healing our divided country.
So can we all raise our glasses or our hands to a woman who is a hero to all of us, Marjorie O’Laughlin. We love you Marge!
