Before Mike Potemra joined National Review, he was a longtime public servant, working as wordsmith for President Ronald Reagan, Senator David Durenberger (R., Minn.), Senator Mike DeWine (R., Ohio), and Senator Bob Kasten (R., Wis.), where I had the great delight of working with him from 1988 to 1992. The Kasten staff alumni — which included a young and precocious intern from Janesville named Paul Ryan, who worked in our office mailroom around the corner from Mike’s desk — are stunned and saddened by Mike’s passing. He was a wellspring of knowledge about history, politics, religion, and pop culture; a gifted writer; and wonderful person who brightened our days with his wit and humor.

His impressions of Reagan, William F. Buckley, Jack Kemp, and George H. W. Bush were spot-on and hilarious. Mike’s raspy imitation of Kemp’s excitable and often windy way of talking about supply-side tax cuts was especially side-splitting. (Mike was a believer in lower taxes but a skeptic of some of the more fantastic claims made by supply-side enthusiasts at the time. He once asked me: “Hey C, so is it really true that the gold standard can improve sexual prowess?”)

Mike was always looking for ways to inject some frivolity into his work. He and I drafted an op-ed for Kasten opposing the creation of another taxpayer-funded multi-lateral bank, which was called the Bank for European Reconstruction and Development. Mike submitted the article to National Review and purposely titled it: “For European Reconstruction and Development: BERD is the Word.” The day it ran in NR with that exact title, Mike was dancing around the office singing the 1963 song “Surfin’ Bird” by the Trashmen:

A-well, a bird, bird, bird, well-a bird is a word. A-well, a bird, bird, b-bird’s a word

A-well-a don’t you know about the bird?

Well, everybody knows that the bird is a word.

Other remembrances from Kasten alum:

“He and I shared a love for all things related to Bob Dylan, and he knew Dylan better than any one else I knew. He would attempt often to include a phrase from a Dylan song in the speeches he wrote for [Kasten].” This Kasten colleague also noted Mike’s very warm and attentive friendship with an office colleague of ours who became incapacitated by brain cancer.

From another colleague: “One of his signature things — usually when we were walking to or from the Tune Inn for lunch, was to stop a woman in a brightly colored dress and compliment her on how beautiful it was. Most were stunned, but he was genuinely appreciative of someone not afraid to wear spring colors.”

As many have noted, Mike consumed books and wasn’t shy about recommending the best he had read to others. Some of them were surprises, like the NFL Guide to Football. But, as Mike put it, “To really understand America, you need to understand our game.”

I deeply regret losing touch with Mike Potemra over the past ten years. He was truly one of the most unique American characters I have ever met in my life. I will miss him greatly. R.I.P.

— Cesar Conda was a legislative assistant and then a committee staff director for former senator Bob Kasten (R., Wis.) from 1987 to 1992.