Corbett shares lessons learned at Downtown District meeting

Posted on Nov 19, 2009 by Rick Smith.

Ron Corbett

In his first speech as mayor-elect, Ron Corbett told the annual meeting of the Downtown District last night that lessons he learned in losing a fight as a 13 year old are ones he will carry with him into the mayor’s job.

The adolescent fight, the friends who picked him off the ground and the lie he told his parents afterward taught him four things, he said in a 14-minute speech without notes at the event in Gatherings restaurant in the BottleWorks Condominium Lofts building. The four:

You can’t run from problems even if you’re afraid; you must take on the fight; you must be a good Samaritan and show empathy for others; and you have to tell the truth.

The 49-year-old Corbett, dressed in a gray suit, said he will work to follow all four lessons as mayor and he will challenge the Cedar Rapids community to do the same.

“Our lives are all about our own stories,” he said. “And our own stories and the lessons that we learned from them, that’s what shape us as people.”

He told the fight story because he said he wanted to let the gathering of a 115 or so know what kind of mayor they were getting come Jan. 4.

“So as the mayor of Cedar Rapids, the (state’s) second largest town, I’m going to be afraid from time to time about the uncertainties, but I’m going to face them.,” he said. Communities can be afraid, too, he said. “But as your leader,” he said he would challenge the community to face its uncertainties just as he will try to face his own.

Corbett said he particularly liked a quote from President Theodore Roosevelt about “timid souls that know neither victory nor defeat.”

He said he will be involved, he will do battle and, as surely, he will lose some battles along the way. But he will win more, he said, and will learn lessons no matter what.

Corbett said a town is more than streets and viaducts, it’s about people. He said will challenge the community to care for others.

He said he would not let the embarrassment of a failed policy or a bad decision or being on the losing end of a vote tempt him to lie or hide the facts. “As mayor, I’m going to be truthful with people,” he said.

Doug Neuman, president/CEO of the Downtown District, introduced Corbett by saying most everyone at the event knew Corbett well because of his time as president/CEO of the Cedar Rapids Area Chamber of Commerce from 1999 to 2005 and because of his 13 years in the Iowa Legislature before that. Corbett now is vice president at CRST Inc. He is married with five school-age children.