Anyone who’s listened even briefly to blog correspondent Len Ornstein knows he’s a man with deep-seated opinions about politics and statesmanship.  What few may know is that he was once quite a distinguished statesman himself.

This September 1991 article in the Mary Washington College Bullet covers Len’s rise to becoming Student Council President.  He was quite the dark horse candidate — the article indeed notes that he went from “pariah to president.”  Len was a bit of a provocateur in the old days, rattling the political order by criticizing the existing council for being too little engaged with the student body.  He handily won the election, though, after a spirited grassroots campaign in which he simply met and introduced himself to voters on Campus Walk.  (I still remember him doing this, and it was something the other candidates were not doing.)

Note also that the newly elected Vice President was a one Pete Bucellato — another good friend of mine and another eccentric Long Islander.  It’s a wonder the kids at the Virginia state school didn’t dub them “Grant and Sherman.”

We fared well under your stewardship, Len!!