February 26, 2016 · by John McKechnie
Editor’s Note: Charles “Chuck” Zuver, a former lobbyist for the credit union community, died on Feb. 14 at the age of 83. A funeral Mass in celebration of his life will be held on Feb. 26 at 10 a.m., at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Alexandria, Va. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made in Charles’ name to: The Marine Corps Heritage Museum, Quantico, Va., or the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (T.A.P.S), Arlington, Va. Below is a letter of tribute to Zuver by John J. McKechnie, a senior partner at Total Spectrum in Washington.
Chuck Zuver was a lobbyist. Not an “advocate” or a “governmental affairs professional.” No, he was a lobbyist, and in his own words, “damned proud to be one.”
I had the privilege of working for Chuck during his days as head of CUNA’s Washington office from 1987 through 1998. He arrived after a long and successful career as a lobbyist with the American Bankers Association shortly after I started my time at CUNA. Any skepticism I had about his banking background quickly dissipated the moment he began holding forth on the art of lobbying.
There were stories about working for Senate Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson in the late 1950s. Or the one about refereeing a fistfight between an influential house committee chairman and his wife outside the legendary Zebra Room (She won, he reported). The politics and personalities that most of us only read about in history books and the Style section of the Washington Post, Chuck Zuver lived. And so my decade-long tutorial began, with Chuck as the “Professor.”
Credit union advocacy was different then. In the first place, CUNA was a more Madison, Wis.-centric place. Credit unions had an interest in, and aptitude for government relations, but it was less front and center to the trade association life. Zuver began to change that, if not by conscious acts then by the force of his personality.
Zuver was a creature of Capitol Hill, and to watch him move around there was like watching Pablo Picasso paint, or Willie Mays play center field. He had an almost uncanny knack for knowing which bills would move, which lawmakers would be important, which would hang tough and which would disappear when the temperature got hot, etc. Some lobbyists try to do their job by reading newspapers or overhearing others describe what is happening; Chuck Zuver lobbied by lobbying.
He listened to the Congress. In fact, he always told me that the best lobbyists were listeners first, thinkers second, and talkers a distant third. With Chuck, his default was to head to Capitol Hill, walk the halls, see firsthand what was going on. And in that role he helped wave the credit union banner in a very persuasive and influential way.
Credit unions had some victories in those days. “Operation Grassroots”, the 1990-91 campaign to preserve an independent NCUA and NCUSIF, was a real manifestation of what credit union grassroots were and could be. Credit unions rolled up their sleeves, executed a massive petition drive and put 20,000 activists on the Mall for a winter rally. It was Chuck Zuver, an Inside the Beltway guy, who astutely saw the need for an Outside the Beltway approach that in many ways led to the success of HR 1151.
But in other ways the current Washington was not for Chuck. The retail way of politics has been replaced by technology, by Astroturf grassroots. Facebook, not face-time. And while that has its place, Chuck Zuver, I think, was content to reside in the era where relationships, instinct and a handshake ruled the day.
Chuck Zuver gave me a great deal of helpful advice, for all of which I am grateful. One of his most oft-repeated sayings was “no footprints”—an admonition to get things done on Capitol Hill in as quiet and unobtrusive a manner as possible. And although I understand what he was saying, I continually find myself trying to follow in his footsteps, as the example he set guides me to this day.
Thanks for everything Chuck. I miss you already.