Sam Hoskinson was a jock when he attended Riverside-Brookfield High School in the 1950s. He played guard on the football team, was an enthusiastic if not especially talented member of the basketball team, wrestled heavyweight and threw the shot for the track team.
He says he wasn’t all that interested in academics. However a civics class taught by his football coach, Mick Ewing, helped stoke a budding interest in government and politics that put Hoskinson on a path that eventually led him to working in the White House for Henry Kissinger and for three presidents at the highest levels of American foreign policy.
Hoskinson, a member of the RBHS class of 1956, will be awarded an RB Alumni Achievement Award at a dinner to be held at RB on Thursday Oct. 19. Also being honored are research scientist Arthur Sedlacek III of the class of 1978 and the late Mylon Fisher, who owned the Mylon Fisher Pharmacy in Brookfield and served as village president of Brookfield. Tickets for the dinner are $40 per attendee and may be obtained by calling RB at 442-7500.
“My favorite class was civics,” Hoskinson recently recalled. “It stimulated my interest [in government and politics].”
Hoskinson earned a B.A. in political science from the University of Iowa and then earned a master’s degree in international relations from Georgetown University. Then he was hired by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) as an analyst.
Kissinger who served as the National Security Director in the first term of the presidency of Richard Nixon, hired Hoskinson to work as South Asia and Middle Eastern analyst for the National Security Council.
It was exciting, but stressful, for Hoskinson to be working under one of the great scholars and practitioners of diplomacy, Henry Kissinger.
“In many respects it was the most exciting part of my professional life,” said Hoskinson. “I probably learned more from Henry than in all my years in school about how diplomacy really works. It was exhilarating and intense. You felt like you’re at the epicenter of the free world.”
Hoskinson recalls working 14 or 15 hours days.
“Henry is a real taskmaster,” said Hoskinson.
When Nixon resigned the presidency in 1974, Hoskinson stayed on at the National Security Council and worked under Brent Scowcroft during the Ford Administration and under Zbigniew Brzezinski during the first years of the Carter Administration.
Hoskinson had some direct contact with all three presidents that he worked for. He says Nixon had the most developed world view but kept away from staff.
After becoming disillusioned with Carter’s approach to foreign policy, Hoskinson, a self-described moderate Republican, went to work as the issues director of the ill-fated John Connally for President campaign in 1980, which spent millions of dollars but won only one delegate vote at the Republican convention.
After that experience, Hoskinson decided it was time for a change. He was recruited by former Secretary of the Treasury George Schultz to work as manager for international corporate strategy for the Bechtel Corporation, so he moved to San Francisco.
During the administration of George H.W. Bush, Hoskinson came back to Washington when he was recruited to work as deputy to the under secretary of state for economic affairs. He left that post to serve as vice chairman of the National Intelligence Council which provides the president and senior cabinet members with analysis and forecasts concerning international economic, political and military situations of the highest national security interest.
In 1994 Hoskinson got together with a few friends and founded Jefferson Waterman International a D.C.-based consulting firm that assists corporate and foreign governments in public and governmental relations.
Hoskinson maintains an active involvement in foreign policy issues. He serves as the president of the Southeast Europe Economic Development Foundation and of the Alliance for a New Kosovo.
Hoskinson said that he is honored to receiving the alumni achievement reward.
“It’s nice to be remembered at the place you grew up,” said Hoskinson.
The dinner will be Hoskinson’s second visit back to RBHS in just a few weeks. He was just back in town to participate in the 50th reunion of the Class of 1956.
Mylon O. Fisher was a member of the RBHS class of 1935. The life-long Brookfield resident was a businessman, community leader and volunteer. He was the kind of person that makes a town a community.
After graduating from RB Fisher earned a bachelor’s degree in pharmacy. In 1945, he purchased Siebert Pharmacy, where he had worked since he was 12 years old. He renamed the store Fisher’s Pharmacy and owned it until he retired in 1987.
Fisher was known for going the extra mile for customers. He opened his pharmacy at 6 a.m. to be available to early-morning commuters and would come from home to fill an urgently needed prescription late at night or on Sundays.
He started the Businessmen Association which later became the Brookfield Chamber of Commerce. He was a partner in the Fisher and Williams Company that built homes and businesses in Brookfield and in 1962 was a co-founder of the First National Bank of Brookfield, where he served on the Board of Directors.
In 1977, Fisher co-founded the We-Care political party in Brookfield. He was elected village president in the same year. During his administration the fire department headquarters was built on the south side of Brookfield and a new water tower with a porpoise logo was erected. From 1981 to 1985 Fisher served as village trustee. Fisher also served as a trustee for the Brookfield Zoo and as a treasurer for the Brookfield swimming pool.
Fisher died in 1999.
