Christopher Merrill: A Requiem

Delivered at a recent celebration of Iowa Rep. Jim Leach’s life.

James Albert Smith Leach (1942-2024), member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Iowa (1977–2007), chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities (2009-2013).

By Christopher Merrill

Not long after I arrived in Iowa City, in 2000, to direct the International Writing Program, David Skorton, then the University of Iowa vice president for research and now the president of the Association of Medical Colleges, invited me to a meeting of his kitchen cabinet, and there I was introduced to Derek Willard, then UI director of federal relations, who said he welcomed my appointment and looked forward to discussing my “legislative agenda.” I thanked him, wondering what in the world a legislative agenda might be.

Here was the beginning of my education in the art of the possible. Derek later instructed me to travel to Washington, D.C., and make courtesy calls to our congressional delegation, which would last no more than 15 minutes apiece. Thus on my first trip to the capital at the end of th…