Topic: Highway Commission
Interview of John Carlin, June 14, 2019
Interviewed by H. Edward (Ed) Flentje
This 2019 oral history interview focused on the experiences of John Carlin during his legislative career in the House of Representative from 1971-1978 where he led his caucus to achieve the majority party status, and his becoming only the second Democratic House speaker in the 20th Century. The interview contains anecdotes about his experiences in 4-H which he believed developed his leadership skills as well as the issues he embraced during his terms in the House. Carlin also candidly discussed the challenges he faced in working to overturn a veto of a governor of his party. Issues covered in this Show Moreinterview included prisons, the death penalty, reorganizing government, due process for teachers, court unification, centralization of the welfare system at the state level and the politics of roads and transportation. Carlin pointed to livestock judging as training for making decisions. Carlin found that learning to make fast, accurate decisions contributed to his political success.
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Transcripts of two earlier interviews of Carlin, conducted in 2004 and 2008 by professors Bob Beatty and Mark Peterson of Washburn University, are available on this site. Interviews of former Kansas governors conducted by Dr. Bob Beatty of Washburn University during the early decades of the 21st Century provide a view of the lives, political philosophies, and governing styles of governors who led Kansas from the late 20th to the early 21st Century. Beatty generously granted the Kansas Oral History Project (KOHP) permission to house the transcripts of these interviews of former governors John Anderson, William Avery, John Carlin, Bill Graves, Mike Hayden, Mark Parkinson, and Kathleen Sebelius. These interviews are a significant addition to the Kansas Governors Collection, and the KOHP Board is grateful to Dr. Beatty for making the transcripts available for posting here. A 2026 interview of Carlin focusing on his tenure as Archivist of the United States is also available on this site. Show Less
Interview of Robert (Bob) Storey, February 5, 2015
Interviewed by Burdett Loomis
In his 2015 oral history interview, Bob Storey recalled his service in the Kansas Senate from 1969-1976. His recollection was of a Senate in transition in terms of urban-rural influence on policymaking due to the one-person, one-vote principle enunciated by the U.S. Supreme Court in the mid-1960s. He recalled intricacies of interactions among Senate leaders and governors and occasional intrigue in Senate leadership elections. He also reflected on improvements in the functioning of state government during the years when reorganization and modernization of many state functions took place.
Interview of Joe Hoagland, January 23, 2023
Interviewed by Richard Walker
Kansas government underwent a massive change in the 1970's. Governors Docking and Bennett began reorganizing state government and bringing together a lot of independent commissions and state agencies that were operating autonomously into a cabinet system under the direction of a Secretary, such as the departments of Revenue and Transportation. Joe Hoagland's interview expands the understanding of how Kansas government was modernized during that period and how new legislative leaders were developed and empowered to act. Hoagland was involved with several significant legislative issues: the 911 emergency phone system, the comparative negligence act, Show Moremandatory prison sentence for crimes committed with a firearm, banning the sale of handguns, small claims process. Hoagland, himself is an interesting person with many talents and wide-ranging interests. His business activities have been beneficial to Kansas, our country and the world. Sports lovers will like his description of being a professional baseball scout and the first one to discover Albert Pujols. His airline-related businesses took him abroad, living in Brussels, Belgium for over 20 years. He describes traveling around the world 15 times. He als describes his work to develop a new breed of cattle and establish the American Black Hereford Association. He developed a cellphone app to track the movement of cattle in the beef supply chain.
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