In 'Big Russ,' newsman shares his father's wisdom

May 20, 2004|Book Review, Michael D. Langan, Globe Correspondent

Big Russ & Me: Father and Son — Lessons of Life, By Tim Russert, Miramax, 336 pp., illustrated,

$22.95In serviceable prose, Tim Russert, NBC News Washington bureau chief and moderator of "Meet the Press," pays attention to what nuns at Holy Family and St. Bonaventure schools in South Buffalo and West Seneca, N.Y., taught him in the 1950s: Honor your father and mother.

There's no high style in "Big Russ & Me"; it's water from the tap of life, part Bible, part Baltimore Catechism, and the rest canny street smarts. Russert says he's learned so much from "Big Russ," his father, "and I feel so grateful to him, that I wanted to write a book about the two of us, and also about the other important teachers in my life, who have reinforced Dad's lessons and taught me a few new ones."

What were Big Russ's lessons?

They're listed at the top of each chapter. Here are some of them:

"My Father's War" (World War II) is headlined by his father's remark, after young Russert learns he was in a B-24 plane crash in England: "It was a lot tougher for the guys who died." In the chapter titled "South Buffalo," Big Russ tells his son: "People are people, and if they like you, they'll give you the benefit of the doubt."

His favorite tribute to America? "What a country!"

Russert's father had two jobs most of his working life, working for the City of Buffalo Sanitation Department during the day and driving a truck at night for the Buffalo Evening News, among other stints, to keep food on the table, kids in Catholic school, and a roof over the family's heads.

Big Russ never had a second thought about living his life "by the grace of daily obligations." It was what a father did.

In the chapter "Respect," Russert recalls his father's advice at the table: "If you embarrass yourself, you embarrass all of us." His father would say, "Don't get too big for your britches" and "Don't get a swelled head." "Mom would remind us that `pride goeth before a fall.' " And Dad again: "We all make mistakes, but if you go out there and do something you know you shouldn't be doing, that's a tough one." One gets the idea.

Sister Mary Lucille Socciarelli, a.k.a. Sister Lucille Kennedy (because she liked the Kennedys so much); Father John Sturm, prefect of discipline at Canisius High School; and Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan come in for high praise. They underlined Russert's father's lessons.