Fort Scottian gives insights about friend Mitt Romney

After interviewing Mitt Romney for a position at Bain Capital, Ralph Willard was convinced Romney would be going into politics someday.

Willard, a native Fort Scottian, with Bill Bain, formed the investment firm Bain, Willard Cos. They had broken off from Boston Consulting Group, where Romney was working following simultaneous completion of a master's degree in business administration and a law degree from Harvard University.

The new Bain, Willard generated a lot of clients, but had too few people to do the work, so they recruited help. "We arranged for one of those furtive CIA-type meetings," because Romney didn't want anyone at Boston Consulting to know he was talking to Bain, Willard, Willard said.

When Romney arrived at Willard's condominium on the Boston waterfront, Willard said, he was struck by how handsome Romney was and he remembers thinking that he was a "pretty boy," so he couldn't be all that smart. Willard asked Romney a "bunch of tough questions" hoping to prove that point, but it wasn't to be.

Then he tried to find out if Romney was unkind. "He started talking about his church and family. I was extremely impressed with him," Willard said.

Willard's boss, Bill Bain, had always told him that to build a successful company, you had to hire people who were better than you.

Willard called Bain to relate his impression of Romney. He told Bain he was convinced Romney would run for president someday, so he didn't know how long Romney would be remain business. Bain said based on what Willard told him about Romney, he would make Bain, Willard a lot of money between then and the time he decided to run for office.

Willard, now retired in Cary, N.C., was "a big fan" of Romney's father, George, who headed American Motors Co. and was governor of Michigan. Willard's friend, Fort Scott attorney Dan Meara, said he got involved in politics when Romney ran for U.S. Senate against Edward Kennedy in 1994.

Romney told Willard his father advised him to go into business and make enough money to ensure his family's future and then to devote the rest of his life to public service.

Willard said Romney was "too cagey" to say he was going into politics, "but it was clear to me this guy would be a terrific political figure.

"He looked presidential at the age of 29," Willard said. "... He looked like the type of person people would pay attention to."

Having grown up in a prototype 1950s household and trained in a business setting where he had to go into board rooms of huge corporations and tell people 20-30 years older than he was what "what they've done wrong," Romney was trained from an early age to be formal, said Willard.

" You don't walk in with your tie loose and with facial hair and talk sloppily in a situation like that. ... You have to be a little stiff. You can't be casual. You have to sound like you're a grownup and a peer of people 30 years older than you," Willard said. "I coached him and in retrospect, I may have coached him too well."

Willard noted there's a disconnect between the way you talk to executives in a board room and the mode you use when talking to a crowd in Dubuque, Iowa.

"The real Mitt is funny; he really is funny and he's sweet," Willard said, recalling a hand-written letter he received from Romney after his father died. He hadn't seen the Massachusetts governor in several years and it touched him to receive it. "It was beautiful; it made me cry," Willard said.

When Romney was governor and when he recruited for Bain, Willard, he looked for the best people. In Massachusetts, his lieutenant governor was a woman and five of his top 10 cabinet members were women. He said Romney will do a "much better job" of staffing the White House with women than Obama has.

"There are minor stylistic differences in what you say in business settings and what you say in a political campaign. Those differences are sharper than they were 30 years ago with the 24/7 news cycle," Willard said.

As for some of Romney's verbal missteps, Willard said he thinks that will continue to be an issue with the GOP nominee. "He tends to say what he thinks," Willard said. "He doesn't have that much of a filter and there are certain linguistic differences to how you speak in business and how you speak in front of the cameras.

"... I don't see an easy cure for that; that's just the way he talks. There's not a mean bone in his body," Willard said, adding you can step on a lot more toes faster in politics than in the corporate world.

In his now second quest for the presidency, Willard said, Romney is very much driven by wanting to fulfill his father's legacy. He said the press treated George Romney poorly after he got back from Vietnam and told reporters the generals and diplomats had "brainwashed him," in other words that had they lied to him. Willard said it was an ill-chosen word, but accurate.

"I think Mitt is afraid of saying something like that, too," Willard said.

On the other hand, Romney is a quick study and has a mastery of details on domestic and foreign issues. "He has a thirst to learn more," Willard said, that comes with management consulting training.

"(Romney) has been criticized for wallowing in the data too much," Willard said, "but I think that's good. ... It's going to require mind-numbing mastery of detail (to improve the economy) and I think Mitt is terrific at that. I think he's going to get better and better."

Sometimes, Willard said, he has to "pinch himself" that he has a friend and business partner of 30 years who is "on the verge of being" the next president of the United States "and I come from some podunk town in Kansas."

Who is Ralph Willard?

Dan Meara, a Fort Scott attorney, has been friends with Ralph Willard for 45 years. They knew each other in grade school when he was known as Randy Willard, and have kept in touch through the decades.

Born in Fort Scott in 1943, Willard's father was an engineer for Frisco Railroad, but at the time of Willard's birth, his father was serving overseas in the U.S. Army during World War II.

His mother was born on a farm in Newkirk, Okla., and came to Fort Scott during the Dust Bowl-Depression era in 1935. Her father, L.J. Winchell, started a lawn mower manufacturing company in Fort Scott.

In high school, Willard was in the debate and forensics program under Ken Mosier. He was state champion in oratory and extemporaneous speaking and debate. He won a National Merit Scholarship to Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif., graduating in 1965. He was admitted to the MBA program at Harvard and graduated with high distinction -- in the top 2 percent -- in 1971.

He formed Bain, Willard Cos. with Bill Bain in 1993. He has also served as chairman and CEO of several companies in which the company has invested.

He established three scholarships at Fort Scott High School -- one for the top academic student, one for the top member of the debate team and one for any student admitted to Harvard or Stanford.

Additionally, he donated to the new hospital and funded a wing named the Willard Family Center for Health and Healing.

With all the success Willard has had, Meara said, it would be easy for him to be aloof, but he's never been that way. "He is very friendly. He has a wonderful sense of humor and is very generous," Meara said.

One thing Meara admires about Willard is his faithfulness to Fort Scott High School and his friends. Even when they haven't seen each other for a while, he and Willard are able to pick up where they left off. "There's no distance; no strangeness," Meara said.

Now retired, Willard lives in Cary, N.C., with his wife, Gizelda. A daughter, Rebecca, from a previous marriage, is a junior at Harvard College. Willard and Gizelda have 9-year-old twins, Lincoln and Olivia. He also has three stepchildren. He is active on the golf course, in various charities and in the Romney presidential campaign.

During his time with Bain, Willard, he has helped train Hewlett-Packard CEO Meg Whitman, American Express CEO and Chairman Ken Chenault and eBay CEO John Donahoe.

Willard still has ties to Fort Scott through friends and a bit of family and returned for his 50th high school reunion last year. "I still think about the lessons I learned there. Those are things that never leave you and in two weeks, maybe I'll be dancing in the White House," Willard said.