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B-2 SUNDAY, APRIL 30, 1995 THE TIMES-PICAYUNE
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. j Ambrose: Famous hisl
From B-1
has taken his crusade to radio and television news programs. He has staked his considerable reputation on Powell?s abilities. He blasts criticisms of the retired general with authoritative ferocity.
Appeals to 'sense of duty'
Powell?s reluctance to enter the race hasn?t tempered Ambrose?s enthusiasm. After all, Eisenhower didn?t want to be president either. Ambrose has a strategy for reluctant soldiers. ?You have to appeal to their sense of duty,? he said. ?You make them understand you want the best for the country and that they?re the best. If he can get the nomination, I?m all but certain he will win.?
Although some of Ambrose?s closest friends doubt Powell?s chances, few question the historian?s straight-ahead drive. Once Ambrose fixes his sights on a goal, they say, nothing much stands in his way. ?He?s a formidable opponent,? said Forrest Pogue, a military historian and Ambrose mentor. ?In other words, he doesn?t let you knock him around.?
In fact, the Midwestern-born scholar is something of a folk hero. Ambrose remains the quintessential all-American ? patriotic, athletic and self-made.
He bears an uncanny resemblance to the icons of his biographies. Like Eisenhower, he is open and forthright, thinks best when he smokes, and trains his concentration on a subject until he masters every angle. Like former President Nixon, he is savvy and conservative, a trifle dogmatic and given to fits of temper. Like Meriwether Lewis, he is innately curious, a pioneer and an ingenious explorer. And like Gen. George Custer, he?s got an unpredictable streak.
Wessons from battlefield
Too young to serve in World ' II, too old for Vietnam, Am-nevertheless takes his les-<?rom the battlefield. He is
LAST WORD
What: 'The American Century," University of New Orleans historian Stephen Ambrose's farewell lecture. Whan: Today at 2 p.m. Whare: UNO Liberal Arts Auditorium, Room 140. Admission: Free.
? For more information, call 286-6368.
disciplined, industrious and about as tough as they come.
It has brought him all the accoutrements of success: a six-fig-ure salary from UNO, hefty royalties from his books, a three-story Victorian on the Mississippi coast and a cabin in northern Wisconsin. He and his wife, Moira, have sent five children to college. Moira, a liberal and avid outdoorswoman from Long Island, N.Y., left a teaching job at Grace King High School in Metairie in the early 1980s and accompanies Ambrose on most of his travels. She said her husband is becoming right-wing politically, a description he accepts. But conservatism, he said, is a natural consequence of prosperity.
Ambrose realized his 35-year dream to publish a national best seller last year when the critically acclaimed ?D-Day, June 6, 1944: The Climactic Battle of World War II? sold more than 250,000 copies. It was his 25th book. Simon and Schuster will release ?D-Day? in paperback next month.
His readers include President Clinton, who reportedly used much of Ambrose?s research last summer in his D-Day commemorative address at Normandy, France.
In fact, the book sits next to Clinton?s desk in his private library on the second floor of the White House. Ambrose knows exactly where it is because his old college roommate, Richard Lamm, the four-time governor of Colorado, saw it there last month.
?I went into the president?s study, and there, sitting on top of . six books to the right of his desk was Ambrose?s ?D-Day.? I couldn?t believe it. I called Steve from the room and said, ?Hey Steve, guess wliere I am? And guess what?s here?? ?
Brought prestige to UNO
At UNO, Ambrose has been the founder and force behind the Eisenhower Center and the upcoming D-Day museum, which have brought national attention and prestige to the school. He receives loads of fan mail from throughout the country, in part because he?s a darling of the news media.
?They?re really enchanted by him,? said Ron Drez, assistant | director of the Eisenhower Center. ?He points out little facts that no one would know of. When Nixon?s funeral was taking ! place (in Yorba Linda, Calif.), < Steve said he was struck by the j little house on top of the hill that j was in the camera?s view. He j quoted Nixon as saying he was born in that little house on the hill, built with his father?s hands. Steve would take a little detail like that and bring it out. Someone coined the phrase ?the national historian? about Steve and : I think it?s appropriate.?
UNO students scramble to get into his classes. ?He obviously was the big star in our department,? said UNO historian Raphael Cassimere, a former student of Ambrose?s. ?And I?m sure people know of our department because he was here.?
But celebrity always has followed Ambrose, said Mary Mohs, a college chum and friend of 40 j years.	?	|
At the University of Wiscon- I sin, Ambrose was a football hero, j Chi Psi fraternity member and respected intellectual. He hung around with the smart set, befriending the likes of Lamm, whom he still counts among his closest pals.
On the field, Ambrose was among the last of the 60-minute athletes who played both offense