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A Letter From the Publisher: Jan. 7, 1985

4 minute read
John A. Meyers

Ever since Charles Lindbergh was named TIME’s first Man of the Year 57 years ago, the selection of the man, woman or even, for 1982, Machine of the Year (the computer) has been the result of a long and thorough process. Senior members of the editorial staff and bureau chiefs around the world submit their nominations, which are then reviewed by Managing Editor Ray Cave and Time Inc. Editor in Chief Henry Grunwald. The criterion remains constant: the Man of the Year is the person who, for better or worse, has most significantly influenced the events of the past twelve months.

The nominations for 1984 included the obvious, Ronald Reagan, who has been Man of the Year twice, and such makers of major news as Jose Napoleon Duarte, Geraldine Ferraro and the terrorist. TIME’s readers, as ever, weighed in with dozens of candidates in hundreds of letters. In the end the editors chose Peter Ueberroth, impresario of the hugely successful Summer Olympics, because they saw in him the embodiment of the entrepreneurial spirit that is flourishing in the U.S.

This week’s 31-page Man of the Year section includes an examination of the renewal of national pride in America, a close-up assessment of Ueberroth and how he achieved what he did, profiles of seven men and women who exemplified American entrepreneurship in 1984 and a photographic essay that recalls the glories of the Olympics.

The opening story was written by Senior Writer Lance Morrow, with the assistance of Reporter-Researchers Val Castronovo and David Thigpen. “The change of mood is very real, although of course it is not universal,” says Morrow. “One day in early fall I flew with the Reagan campaign to Bowling Green State University in Ohio. Outside the hall we could still see the protesters with angry signs. But inside there was a raucous, triumphal, almost overbearing energy. It was as if the campus rage of the ’60s had been turned inside out.”

Few journalists know the Man of the Year better than Correspondent Steven Holmes, who has reported on Ueberroth from TIME’s Los Angeles bureau for the past two years. Says Holmes: “Nearly all the people I interviewed, including Ueberroth, had to struggle against doubting Thomases, financial setbacks and physical exhaustion to bring their dreams to fruition. Yet somehow, astonishingly, they all made it.” To get a fresh view of the personality behind Ueberroth’s controlled demeanor, Robert Ajemian, TIME’s Washington bureau chief for seven years, spent an intensive week with Ueberroth, accompanying him to his baseball commissioner’s office, to several dinners, even on a Ueberroth search for a New York City apartment. Says Ajemian: “He has a swift, shrewd mind that picks up subtleties of conversation, nuances of tone of voice. He is a remarkable observer.”

Ueberroth, concluded Ajemian, needs to be in charge, but he is also quite capable of flexibility. When TIME Special Projects Art Director Tom Bentkowski, who designed the Man of the Year section along with Deputy Art Director Irene Ramp, and Photographer Eddie Adams rang the doorbell at Ueberroth’s home in Emerald Bay, Calif., for a 6 a.m. photo session, their sleepy subject came to the door bewildered. There had been confusion over the date. Would Ueberroth pose anyway? He paused for a moment, smiled and asked, “Well, could you just give me a few minutes to shave?” Shortly thereafter, Adams and Ueberroth were on the beach watching the sunrise, a dawn encounter that produced the portrait that appears on pages 32 and 33–and that showed again that TIME’s Man of the Year knows how to get the job done.

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