O F the Jordan River, and Opposing a Dam That Threatened the Lost River

JIM J 0 N TZ o f the Jordan River, and opposing a dam politics, helping to write the conservation Rodenkirk. W hat scared Rodenkirk was that threatened the Lost River in Orange and recreation platform for the Indiana Jontz’s habit o f reading a textbook lying County. Democratic Party and serving on an envi open on his lap while driving back and Tracking down Jontz during his days at ronmental education task force created by forth from Bloomington to Indianapolis to IU could be problematic, as he spent little State Superintendent o f Public Instruction lobby on behalf o f the environment at the time in his dormitory room, getting by on John J. Laughlin. Even when he was in Indiana Statehouse. Jontz always made it just four to five hours of sleep per night— his dormitory room, Jontz received little back safely, and Rodenkirk was “amazed at a schedule he kept in later years (one o f rest, fielding questions from such noted how much information he could process. his favorite quotes was “early to bed, early Hoosier political figures as Governor Otis He was a born leader.” to rise, work like hell and organize”). Bowen and U.S. Senators Birch Bayh and Jontz’s work on environmental matters Through his work on environmental is Vance Hartke. “The phone calls I would at the university brought him into contact sues, Jontz became very involved in state take from Jim were amazing,” remembered with another student activist, Emmi, the daughter of Lynton K. Caldwell, a nation ally known professor o f political science at IU famous for being one of the principal architects behind securing environmental impact statements for federal projects. Although Emmi had observed Jontz in ge ology and folklore classes they shared, the two did not become close until she helped arrange a trip with other IU students to Washington, D.C., to lobby on wilderness issues before a U.S. Senate subcommittee for an environmental law class she was taking. Through her father she was able to find accommodations for the group in the co basement of a church on Capitol Hill for just seventy-five cents a night. “ He really wanted to make a difference,” Emmi said o f Jontz, whom she married in June 1973. Emmi hated public speaking, but Jontz relished such events. “And he got better at it every day,” she said. “ He remembered everyone’s name and took delight in walk ing into a room full of people as no one was a stranger— there just were people he hadn’t yet befriended.” Although it might sound too grandiose to say that Jontz wanted to save the planet, Emmi noted “that was his ultimate goal, to be a spokes- After announcing his race for the U.S. Senate in 1994, Jontz, shaking hands with a potential voter during the campaign, drove off in his Chevrolet pickup with 145,000 miles for appearances in Bloomington, Terre Haute, and Evansville. 22 | TRACES | Fall 2010.

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