A tribute to the man behind JFK’s words

I would have taken only passing notice of the death of Theodore Sorensen had not a Red Oak woman called to tell me she had gone to school with him, and to pose an interesting question.  
The news that Sorensen died at the age of 82 was broadcast on the last Sunday afternoon in October.  
The initial account depicted him as a ghostwriter for President John F. Kennedy. The item was repeated an hour later, this time with a clip from Kennedy’s famous “Ask not what you can do for your country” address, which had been penned by Sorensen.   
Refer-ence was also made to Sorensen’s several books, as well as the fact that he was much more to the president than a speech writer.  
As Kennedy’s trusted adviser, the bespectacled Nebraskan had perhaps his finest hour when the United States and Russia teetered on the brink of nuclear annihilation. Ted Sorensen, news reports reminded us, helped extricate JFK from the deep and treacherous waters of the Cuban Missile Crisis.    
I changed the channel to a football game and would not have given Sorensen another thought had it not been for the phone call.  
Carla Renner Cossairt was born a bit later in 1928 than was Theodore Sorensen.  They started school at the same time, half-day primary students at Lincoln’s Sheridan Elemen-tary.  
Cossairt notes that Sorensen’s parents were active in community affairs—he in politics, she in the Parent Teacher Organization.
 Little Carla and Theodore were not in the same grade for long.  The system of education then in place permitted—even encouraged—gifted students to learn and progress through the grades at a faster pace than their classmates.  
Sorensen left other children behind.  
He was a freshman when Carla and others he started school with reached the 6th grade.  
Both attended the University of Nebraska at Lincoln. Carla’s first year was 1946-47. Sorensen, because the system let him advance, had arrived earlier.  
A college memory that stands out for Ms. Cossairt is one that involves Sorensen and another Nebraska student who went on to do quite well; a young man named Johnny Carson.   Carson and Sorensen, good friends, devised a parody based on the problems of the fledgling United Nations in the post-World War II era.  Various students were selected to play delegates.  Among them was Carla Renner, chosen to represent Hungary.  The combination of Sorensen’s intellectual world view and Carson’s wit and creativity made the staged event a successful one, and as we know both men went on to excel in their chosen field.
Carla Renner was not close to either Carson or Sorensen, but she knew them as students and as a participant in their imaginative sketch on the United Nations, and she followed their respective careers with interest.  Sorensen, without doubt, helped form the “Camelot” mystique that had much to do with the making of a presidency, and he played a key role in the development of our nation’s global strategy during the Cold War.  He was, to a certain extent, a product of his education; an education that challenged him to progress at a pace that matched his personal abilities.  
Ms. Cossairt wonders how Theodore Sorensen would fare in today’s public school system.  I don’t know, and I’m not sure anyone can answer that question with certainty.  ?