By CHUCK OFFENBURGER

LELAND, Iowa, May 9, 2026 — It was like we were in an old movie, a sweet and sometimes sappy one, but still fun and inspiring.

Here was a group of old friends, many in our 70s, who’d decided another friend needed a boost. They had decided to take him on a road trip, one that took him back to his old home territory in north Iowa, including his hometown of Leland (pop. 250).

You know him — Terry Branstad, now 79. His 22 years as Governor of Iowa made him the longest-serving state governor in American history. And then he became U.S. Ambassador to China. Earlier he’d been president of Des Moines University for six years. After China, he served a time as an ambassador-in-residence at Drake University, and then he headed the World Food Prize for two years before he “retired” in 2025.

He’s pretty well seen and done it all, you know?

Terry and Chris Branstad, on May 7, along the north Iowa highway the State of Iowa has dedicated in Terry’s honor.

His health now has him “slowing down,” as he tells people. “I have balance issues, and I can’t walk anymore.”

He’s still sharp mentally, his memory is very strong and he stays involved with the Branstad Churchill Group, which consults with clients who want to do business in other nations. But his physical challenges require he have more rest and less stress than he was used to most of his career.

Retired TV executive Ray Cole and retired Iowa Lottery director Terry Rich, like Branstad, are members of a well-known Des Moines-area group “The Breakfast Club” that meets Tuesday mornings at Biaggi’s restaurant in West Des Moines. In February, they visited the former governor at his new home in the Wesley On Grand Senior Living Community in Des Moines.

“Anything we can do for you?” they asked him in conversation.

Branstad reminded them how in December, Governor Kim Reynolds, his successor, had presented him the Iowa Award — the state’s highest citizen honor — in a ceremony that packed the Iowa Capitol rotunda. She surprised everybody then by announcing that 36 miles of Iowa Highway 9 in north Iowa would be “Dedicated To Governor Terry E. Branstad,” as the signs across that stretch now say.

Why 36 miles? That honors the fact he was 36 years old when he was first inaugurated as governor, and for the total years of service he has provided the state.

“Because I can’t really get around very well, I haven’t been able to get up there and see the highway since they dedicated it,” Branstad told Cole and Rich. “I’d really like to go on a drive from one end of the 36 miles to the other.”

Soon two more members of The Breakfast Club, Reynolds Cramer, the CEO of Fareway Stores Inc., and Toby Joseph, the retired jewelry store owner, heard about the Branstad request.

The four Branstad pals came to a consensus: “Let’s make it happen!”

Cramer said Fareway could provide a 15-passenger van and volunteered Steve Kieffer, the company’s vice-president of risk management and safety, to do the driving.

It took a couple months to get it all scheduled, but this past Thursday, 11 of us made an 8-hour round-trip, with several stops, to see and experience the Governor Terry E. Branstad Highway.

Best of all, we did it with Terry and Chris Branstad as the honorees and chief storytellers.

A precious photo, from 1983 or ’84, that old friends brought Thursday to our road trip lunch in Forest City, where Terry Branstad went to high school.

Some of the stories:

—We again heard the familiar story of how two of Terry Branstad’s Forest City teachers planted the idea of public service in his mind. They were Lura Sewick, “my government teacher who taught us the three R’s — rights, respect and responsibility.” And Fred Smith gave young Branstad a love of Iowa history, while also coaching him in football and baseball.

—He got his strong work ethic from his father Edward Branstad. “We’d put in really long days on the farm, doing field work and taking care of the cattle,” Terry said, repeating a story most Iowans know by heart. “At the end of the day, we’d be walking up the hill toward the house, and Dad would say, ‘Well, boys, we didn’t get much done today, but we’ll give ’er heck tomorrow!’ ”

—Terry Branstad got involved in the College Republicans organization when he was a student at the University of Iowa, and at a statewide meeting of the chapters from various schools, he met Rich Schwarm, a student at Morningside College in Sioux City. They met again in law school at Drake University, and wound up being law partners in Lake Mills from 1974 until 1983, when Branstad became governor. Schwarm, who still practices in Lake Mills, has been a loyal political supporter ever since. Why was Branstad so successful as a politician? “There are a lot of factors in that,” Schwarm said. “Some people in politics are good at their work after they get elected, others are good at campaigning, but a lot of them are not good at both. Terry has always loved holding office, and he loved campaigning, too. That’s kind of rare.”

— Branstad said he “decided pretty early that he eventually wanted to be governor of Iowa. It was obviously the best government job in the state. When I started feeling that, that’s when I decided to go to law school to help get ready for it.” He also “went to a GOP campaign school in Milwaukee” and learned how to run a campaign. “And then when I had an opportunity to run for lieutenant governor (in 1978), I decided one thing I could do myself was out-work everybody else. And in my campaigns, I’d find volunteers to work for me, not only in every county but in almost every precinct, too. It took a lot of organization.”

—The results? “I never lost an election,” he can now say with a big smile. There were 19 or 20 of them, depending on whether you count primary elections in which he was unopposed. In his final election as governor, in 2014, he won in 98 of Iowa’s 99 counties, losing only in Johnson County. That was not a surprise. Over his whole career, he said, “I never did carry Johnson County.”

—Immediately after his first inauguration as governor in 1983, the state’s Superintendent of Banking Tom Huston “came into my office and said, ‘Governor, I want you to know that the portfolios of many of our rural banks is not good.” It was the first notice that the Farm Crisis was upon us — the worst economic calamity in 50 years. “From 1983 to 1986, the Iowa Farm Bureau reported that land values in Iowa dropped 63 percent,” Branstad recalled. “We had to close 23 banks in that time. Tom Huston would come in on Friday afternoons, tell me what banks were going to be shut down that weekend, and we’d try to find a new owner by Monday.”

—To try to boost public morale in those tough years, “I encouraged people to go on what we called ‘mini-vacations,’ taking their families to visit attractions around Iowa, helping bring some business into towns that were struggling,” Terry said. “I did that with my own family.” Chris Branstad jumped into the conversation right then and said, “Our kids just loved those ‘mini-vacations’ — NOT!” Then Terry recalled on a weekend stay in the historic northeast Iowa town of Stone City, which legendary Iowa artist Grant Wood made famous. “A TV station sent a crew in to see how we were doing. They had me on camera telling about all the things we were seeing and doing. Our son Eric, who was then about 8 years old, was sitting right in front of me. They moved the microphone and camera down and asked him what he thought of the weekend. Eric said, ‘I’m hot, and I’m bored!’ ”

—There was the memorable 4th of July in what must have been a campaign year when Governor Branstad had his staff schedule him into parades in seven scattered Iowa towns. “I almost always walked in parades,” he said, “and at the end of that day, I had blisters so bad on both feet I could barely walk at all!”

—Later, in the family’s years in Terrace Hill, the governor’s mansion, youngest son Marcus had a group of high school buddies stay overnight. “Early the next morning, I got a phone call from one of our State Troopers who said, ‘Governor, you’ve got kids on the roof, and you’ve got to get them off there!’ ” Terry said. When Chris Branstad heard him telling that story, she added, “When I heard them say that, the first thing I said was, ‘Well, where are their parents?’ ”

—A sports highlight? In the early 1990s, the Field of Dreams outside Dyersville was hosting celebrity baseball games on Labor Day weekend, featuring retired great stars of Major League Baseball playing against a team of actors, musicians, politicians and other well-known amateurs. That’s when left-handed batter Terry Branstad stepped into the batter’s box against the St. Louis Cardinals’ Hall of Fame pitcher Bob Gibson, known for his un-hittable fastballs. Gibson delivered a real rocket, which hit Branstad on his bicep. In fact, the pitch hit him so hard that the baseball’s seams were imprinted in a serious bruise. Was the Governor upset? Hah! He wore short sleeves around the state and on a foreign trip over the next couple weeks, telling the story and showing off his “trophy” from Bob Gibson!

—The Branstad’s daughter Allison Branstad Costa is a career teacher who followed her parents to China when her dad was U.S. ambassador there. She taught in an international school there. The Costas have now moved on to the nation of Senegal on the western tip of Africa, and Allison now has nearly a decade of teaching experience overseas. I can’t wait to hear her stories.

—Has there been a moment when Terry Branstad has been most proud of being an American? “There’s something about hearing the National Anthem being sung at a ball game,” he said. “And that reminds me of when we were in China. Every year, we’d celebrate what we called ‘National Day’ at the embassy, and we’d all sing the anthem. That was special, but one year it was really special because we invited Simon Estes, our Iowa opera star, to come sing it at the embassy. I’ll tell you, that voice!”

Thursday’s trip included more than storytelling, highway scouting and browsing the beautiful countryside on a fine spring day.

We sang, too!

Terry Rich, one of Iowa’s most imaginative promoters over his long career, had earlier asked the former governor what his “favorite old song” is.

“Johnny Horton’s ‘The Battle of New Orleans’,” Branstad answered immediately.

Rich found it. He brought a recording of it, and we all sang it a half-dozen times on the trip Thursday.

The Breakfast Club buddies also planned a special toast at the end of the trip.

“What’s your favorite beer?” Branstad was asked during the planning.

“A&W Root Beer,” he answered.

So they bought it, and in late afternoon, we all saluted him with a clanking of cans, and drank up.

Our itinerary was up Interstate Highway 35, nearly to the Iowa-Minnesota border, then west 36 miles on the Governor Terry E. Branstad Highway, from Hanlontown to Buffalo Center and back.

(Acknowledging where we were and whom we were honoring, we also added the “Iowa Corn Song” to our songfest and did it — quite well — three or four times.)

“We all agreed that this was one of the most rewarding friendship gestures we’ve made,” Terry Rich said afterward. “Helping a public official who has dedicated his life to helping others — with none of us asking for a favor in return — was a great feeling. It brought us all closer together.”

Branstad’s almost constant smile during the road trip, Rich said, “meant the world.”

Ol’ partners and ol’ pals, too. Joining Terry and Chris Branstad for lunch at Shooterz in Forest City were Rich and Charise Schwarm. Terry Branstad and Rich Schwarm were law partners in Lake Mills before Branstad was elected governor.

 

The lunch crowd included, left to right in front, Chris & Terry Branstad and Rich & Charise Schwarm, and left to right in back, Nick Humpal, Reynolds Cramer, Branstad assistant Sherill Whisenand, Terry Rich, Ray Cole and Toby Joseph.

KCCI-TV videographer Glen Biermann and news reporter & anchorman Eric Hanson spent the day feeding video reports of the Branstad highway tour to their own station back in Des Moines and then on to stations across the nation.

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You can comment on this column below or write the columnist directly by email at chuck@offenburger.com.