Nodler retiring from political life as term ends

When Sen. Gary Nodler’s term expires in the state Senate, he knows what he will be doing for the next go around.

“I am retiring,” Nodler said. “I have been planning for a number of years to retire the end of this term and when the congressional seat came open unexpectantly, I actually first decided not to run for that office, because I had been planning to retire and I was talked into it by a group of friends from Springfield.”

In November 2002, Nodler won election as a Republican to the Missouri Senate, representing the 32nd District, which includes Dade, Jasper and Newton counties. He has been a senator for the 32nd district for the past eight years.

But politics has been in the senator’s plans since he was a student at Neosho High School. Nodler graduated in 1968.

 “I was a charter member of the first teenage Republican club in Neosho back in 1966,” he said. “I canvassed for the Nixon campaign in the 1968 presidential campaign. Then when I went to Crowder College, I founded the first chapter of the College Republicans at Crowder College. Political science was my major. In 1970, I was county coordinator for Jack Danforth’s U.S. Senate race for Newton County. And it was actually Jack Danforth that introduced me to (Congressman) Gene Taylor.”
Nodler was Taylor’s district staff director from 1973 until Taylor retired in 1988. In 1989, President George H.W. Bush appointed Nodler to serve as regional administrator for the United States Small Business Administration, a post Nodler held until Bush left office in January 1993.

In 1997, Nodler was appointed to a shared staff position working with U.S. Sen. Christopher S. “Kit” Bond, Sen. John Ashcroft and Seventh District Congressman Roy Blunt on matters relating to small business and federal procurement.

Aside from politics, he was president and owner of SoMo Cable, Inc., where Nodler built and operated the cable television system in Seneca. He also owned and operated a consulting business that worked with Midwest Paging Systems, Lucky Strike Fishing Lures, Hookup Corp. and Leggett & Platt.

Legislative highlights
Looking back over his political years as a senator, Nodler has had some high points.

“It has just been a great series of experiences and opportunities,” he said. “I actually think more about the legislative work, than I do of events. There were a lot of fun events, a lot of opportunities to meet people, some traveling, sort of thing. My greatest satisfaction comes from some of the legislation.”

Nodler said they were able to obtain some annual funding to support the alternative energy program at Crowder College. It had been on the books as the Missouri Alternative Center for around 14 years but it never received funding.

“So we were able to expand the baseline budget for Crowder College to include a quarter of a million dollars a year to support the staffing of the alternative energy center,” he said. “And of course, that funding goes on today. At Missouri Southern, we were able to pass Senate Bill 55, changing the name from Missouri Southern State College to Missouri Southern State University and adding graduate education there for the first time. It was Senate Bill 55, which we passed less than 30 days after I was sworn into office. They had been trying to do that for many years.”

When Senate Bill 55 was passed, there were only three dissenting votes.

Nodler said that bill was really significant thing for him for two reasons.

“The first was that it just was something that had been such a high priority for the area for a long, long time,” the senator said. “The second was the late Sen. Dick Webster once told me that he became the most powerful senator in Missouri when he got enough people believe the myth that he was the most powerful. His advice was always ‘build the myth that you are a powerful legislator and when enough people believe it, it will be true.’ And passing that had been a controversial bill — not from just Missouri Southern, but there were about 10 institutions that had been seeking over a decade to change their names unsuccessfully because of filibuster. And when I was able to pass that bill in less than a month after being sworn in, it created an opportunity for people to believe that I could move legislation successfully and it actually made it much easier to move legislation later.”

Another key bill passed during his senate years was Senate Bill 389, which contained the Lewis and Clark Discovery Initiative.

“And that provided, to date, more than $275 million in capital improvements at higher educational institutions including $2 million for the Farber Building at Neosho and the $19 million for the health sciences building at Missouri Southern, which was my bill,” Nodler said. “But all over Missouri, there were millions of dollars in capital improvement projects at every higher education institution, all accomplished with no increased debt to the state with no tax increase by using resources from Missouri Higher Educational Loan Authority that had been diverted to benefit out of state students at out of state institutions. We redirected that money back into Missouri higher education, which is what the charter purpose that entity was to begin with and I think that was a great success.”

Some bills, Nodler said, were generated by constituent interest, such as by the family of Jessica Mann of Neosho, who was killed by a drunk driver just west of Neosho on Missouri Highway 86.

“Their family wanted action, they wanted an increase in penalties and I was privileged to be the legislator who wrote the bill, and to be there when it passed,” he said. “But it was actually the efforts of the family themselves to get the law changed to be able to help the facilitate that kind of successful citizen initiative. It is pretty exciting too. Tragedy like that is a terrible thing, but then when you see a family turn their grief into an effort to take some action and then actually succeed in getting a law changed, that is kind of a neat thing to see happen.”

Retirement plans
When Nodler first ran for the state senator’s office, he was retired. This actually makes his second retirement and he and his wife, Joncee, do have some plans in mind.

“(Retirement) is not a new experience for me and retirement is not inactivity, it is economic liberty,” Nodler said. “So you are free to do what interests you every day. Joncee and I like to travel, we are sports enthusiasts, go to a lot of Missouri Southern basketball, football and baseball games.”

Nodler did say he has some plans for traveling including their first trip in the winter will be a warm weather destination.

Nodler thanks the people of the 32nd district for giving him the opportunity to serve them for the past eight years.

“I am appreciative for the loyal support of folks in our home area,” he said. “It is a position that allowed some opportunity to influence the state’s history for eight years and hopefully in a positive way. I think that we were able to get some pretty significant things done.”