Ronald Reagan is the only president I have seen in person. It happened one day in 1987 while were in Washington touring the White House. The tour stopped for a few minutes and we were held in a room while the president left the grounds on Marine One. We were poised by a window on the first floor looking out on the south lawn and caught a brief glimpse of President Reagan walking across the lawn toward the helicopter. As he walked he turned and waved to a group and he had the characteristic smile on his face.

Politics aside, I guess I have always had a interest in the man because I watched him develop into a leader as I was growing up. As a child in the fifties I watched him every week on the old General Electric Theater television program. When he was elected governor of California I was a teenager. When he first ran for the presidential nomination in 1976 I was young father and when he was finally elected president our young family was intact.

In recent years I have read several books about him and read quite a bit of his writings. It has been astonishing to learn of what a voluminous writer he was over the years. He was well informed about a great many affairs when he took office. His mind was set in what he believed and stood for. One can disagree with Ronald Reagan on his politics or many other matters, but there is no doubt he was a man of conviction and certainty of his beliefs. That principle alone makes him worthy of study for many life lessons.

One chapter in Robinson's book about Reagan is entitled, "At the Big Desk in the Master Bedroom". This is Michael Reagan's most vivid memory of his famous father. Everyday after school Michael would come home and find his father sitting at this desk writing. He was always reading and writing about ideas and events and people. This is why Reagan was so well informed about the big issues and ideas of his time. It is why he could talk about them so easily and simply.

He read magazines, newspapers and books and then he would sit down and work out his own thoughts on the subjects he read about. Those writings found there way into speeches and books of his own. They shaped his policies toward government, taxation, the Soviet Union, liberty and the American experience. He read what others thought, thought it through himself and then put it down on paper. Through this experience he continued his education and prepared himself for leadership at the state and national level.

This is what the man once called, an amiable dunce, did to prepare himself for service. Robinson writes that this is a lesson all of us can learn from. He says, "You don't have to be an expert to participate in American life. All you have to do is read some history, follow the news-and think for yourself. You have a head. Use it."

Good advice on this President's Day.