I’ve followed up most of the leads for people I’d only chatted with briefly at the Pioneer Reunion, and have maybe 50 interviews or emailed recollections of his school days. One of the people I’d met at the reunion was Mike Wall, who’d mentioned going to a Boys State convention with Jim Osterberg in East Lansing, Michigan in 1964.
This was intriguing, because it was yet more evidence that, despite his claims to the contrary, Jim Osterberg was a confident, popular, well-liked and notably ambitious youth.
Boys State drew High School kids from all over Michigan, each of whom were selected by their school to run in what was essentially a mock election, where the delegates would form parties, allocate political roles and run for office against each other. Jim did rather well. Very well, in fact. Mike Wall:
“The thing about Jim that was unique (I wasn’t friends but we had a good relationship), the guy was so smart, by then he lived on the edge a little bit and liked to shock people. And he looked at this thing and said, hey, I’ve got this figured out , I’m gonna run for Governor of The State of Michigan. What you have to understand is the kids that come from some of these different schools that have a tradition, they’ve coached them in advance, they’ve done their homework, they’ve already had meetings before they get up there, so they’ve put their political organisation together already. An incredible infrastructure that was pre-planned. In Jim’s case, he gets the bug, no background, no nothing, but the guy was really good on this feet and could put together some incredible speeches. I’m not sure exactly how many rounds there were, I was running for lieutenant governor, I made it thru two or three, before I didn’t have the votes or coalition [to carry me through]. And Jim is a dark horse for governor, he continued to manoeuvre [through the system], and he got the nomination for his party. He didn’t win governor, but that was incredible feat.... it was DEAD serious. To pull off what he pulled off was no minor feat.”