Special Collections Department
403 Parks Library
Iowa State University
Ames, IA 50011-2140

MS 129
Lawrence (Pat) Touchae
Papers, 1910-1963, n.d.


Descriptive summary

creator:

Touchae, Lawrence (Pat)

title:

Papers
dates:

1910-1963, n.d.
extent:

16.87 linear ft. (3 document boxes, 1 half-document box, and 11 oversize boxes)
collection number:

MS 129
repository:

Special Collections Department, Iowa State University.

 

Administrative information

access:

Open for research
publication rights:

Consult Head, Special Collections Department
preferred citation:

Lawrence (Pat) Touchae Papers, MS 129, Special Collections Department, Iowa State University Library.

 

Biographical note

Lawrence A. "Pat" Touchae, born in 1912 in Rockford, Illinois. He attended Iowa State Teachers College (now the University of Northern Iowa) from 1934-1938. While a student, Touchae began working at the Black Hawk Sport Shop in Waterloo and was eventually made manager (1939) of the company, where he worked until enlisting in the Army (April of 1942). After serving for three years overseas, Touchae returned (January 1946) to the sports shop.

Touchae served as mayor of Waterloo, Iowa from 1950-1956. In 1952, while Touchae was mayor, Waterloo became the first Midwestern city to declare a Civil Rights Week. In 1956 he became Executive Secretary of the Chamber of Commerce. He was a leader in the Urban Street and Highway Research Association, a group formed in 1961. One of the Association's main goals was to urge the adoption of the "Fair Fifteen," a proposal in which fifteen percent of the Iowa Road Use Tax Fund would go to the cities.

Touchae was politically active again in 1963 in a movement to defeat the Shaff Plan, which called for Iowa legislative reapportionment, with the House elected on an area basis and the Senate on a population basis. He also served as President of the League of Iowa Municipalities and as Assistant Director of the Iowa Development Commission. In 1968, he left the Development Commission to serve as Assistant Director for the Iowa Association of Municipal Utilities. He held this position until his retirement in 1978.

Touchae died March 16, 1989.

 

Collection description

This collection (1910-1963, n.d.) contains Mayor Touchae's campaign and personal documents including scrapbooks, news clippings, correspondence, reports, speeches, weekly radio talk transcriptions, a few recordings of weekly campaign radio talks, campaign financial records (Mayor-Waterloo), campaign correspondence, campaign news clippings, and tax reports and papers on Waterloo. The bulk of the collection relates to Touchae's election campaigns and his involvement with Waterloo city affairs, Iowa League of Municipalities, the Shaff Plan and reapportionment.

Political campaign materials in this collection include political announcements for radio use, election speeches, pictures of Seeman Party candidates and a list of candidates. The scrapbooks contain a comprehensive record of Touchae's terms as mayor of Waterloo and include news clippings, photographs, programs, promotional materials, invitations and ephemera. Included from Touchae's professional career are memoranda from the Citizens Action Committee, correspondence regarding Waterloo parking lot plans, and newsletters. Parking lot material can also be found in scrapbooks Nos. 1 and 2. Also included is general correspondence from Touchae's years as mayor of Waterloo, including the building of a new city hall. City hall material consists of an artist's sketch, a report on a voting survey for a new city hall building, and news clippings. Other materials in this collection include a political cartoon, a copy of Waterloo's first African-American newspaper The Waterloo Post, and several photographs of Mayor Touchae and his colleagues.

The collection also houses documents from the Iowa League of Municipalities (ILM) including reports, correspondence, an analysis of municipal problems in the state of Iowa, transit system materials and an annual report.

For related collections, see the Urban Street and Highway Association Records (MS 87), Duane E. Dewel Papers (MS 46), Citizens Committee for a Constitutional Convention (Iowa) Records (MS 16), and the Citizens Action Committee for Fair Representation Records (MS 131).

 

Container list

Box

Folder

Title

Dates

1

1

Campaign material: radio talks (includes statement of objectives and principles)

1950

1

2

Campaign material: financial records (includes sworn statements of election expenses)

1950-1953

1

3

Campaign material: campaign stationary with small campaign button attached, and election placard

n.d.

1

4

Campaign material: includes correspondence, radio talks, campaign news clippings, and Waterloo tax reports

1953

1

5

Campaign material: political announcements, election speeches, pictures for new media (2- 4x3, b/w, 11- 2x2.5, b/w, 10- 1.5x1 b/w), and list of Seeman Party candidates

1955, n.d.

1

6

City Affairs: The Wellbeing of Waterloo report by Charles Mulford Robinson

1910

1

7

City Affairs: Citizens Action Committee memoranda, highway transportation maps, and Preliminary Report of Recommendations by Earl Glasson

1948

1

8

City Affairs: parking lot correspondence and news clippings

1950, n.d.

Map Case

C406 D06

City Affairs: parking lot plans and drawings

1950, n.d.

1

9

City Affairs: general correspondence and Waterloo Airport Dedication flyer

1950-1955, n.d.

1

10

City Affairs: city hall artist's sketch, final report on city hall vote survey, and news clippings regarding a new city hall

1951, n.d.

1

11

City Affairs: includes West High School commencement address, speech notes, The Problems of the Cities speech/report, and 62nd Annual Convention of the Iowa Master Plumbers Association program

1951-1954, n.d.

1

12

City Affairs: ephemera - including cartoons, news clippings, The Waterloo Post negro newspaper, and photographs (3- 3x4, b/w, 4-5x7, b/w, and 1- 8x10, b/w)

1952-1956, n.d.

1

13

City Affairs: includes news articles and Waterloo's Centennial Prairiedrama souvenir program

1954

1

14

Weekly Radio Talks: April-December

1950

1

15

Weekly Radio Talks: January-June

1951

1

16

Weekly Radio Talks: July-December

1951

2

1

Weekly Radio Talks: January-June

1952

2

2

Weekly Radio Talks: July-December

1952

2

3

Weekly Radio Talks: January-June

1953

2

4

Weekly Radio Talks: July-December

1953

2

5

Weekly Radio Talks: January-December

1954

2

6

Weekly Radio Talks: January-September

1955

2

7

Weekly Radio Talks: January-February

1956

3

1

Iowa League of Municipalities: list of legislative advisory committee, New Laws Affecting Local Government reports, annual report, report of examination, and speeches

1951-1953, n.d.

3

2

Iowa League of Municipalities: Sewer Separation Project (includes analysis, correspondence, and reports)

1951-1955, n.d.

3

3

Iowa League of Municipalities: correspondence, annual report, statements, sub-committee reports, and questionnaire

1951-1955

3

4

Iowa League of Municipalities: Transit System (includes correspondence, a bill for municipally owned transit systems, resolutions, and news clippings)

1952-1955, n.d.

3

5

Iowa League of Municipalities: State Tax Study material (includes reports, correspondence, and The Early History of IAMU by Glen Yarger)

1955, n.d.

3

6

Reapportionment: includes Shaff Plan, speech of reapportionment of the Iowa legislature, and news clippings

1955, n.d.

3

7

Reapportionment: papers - includes History of Legislative Apportionment in Iowa - Some Basic Facts and Background on Reapportionment in Iowa and The Federal Analogy

1960-1963, n.d.

3

8

Reapportionment: Organization of the Senate Districts under the Shaff Plan

n.d.

3

9

Reapportionment: Iowans Against the Shaff Plan (includes campaign literature)

1963

3

10

Reapportionment: Shaff Plan Debate program

1963

3

11

Reapportionment: correspondence to Duane Dewel and Governor Harold Hughes concerning legislative apportionment

1955-1963, n.d.

3

12

Reapportionments: Shaff Plan speeches

1963

3

13

Reapportionment: Reapportionment? An Iowa Problem That Must Be Solved by Duane E. Dewel

n.d.

3

14-15

Reapportionment: news clippings

1953-1963

3

16

Aerial photographs of Waterloo (7-12x14, b/w) and speeches and radio talks (on record)

1950-1951, n.d.

4

1-2

Reapportionment: news clippings

1953-1963

4

3

Reapportionment: publications, including Patterns of Apportionment and Rural vs. Urban Political Power

1955-1963, n.d.

5

1

Scrapbook No. 1, 3/10/1950-3/1/1951 (33 photographs)

1950-1951

5

2

Scrapbook No. 2, 2/28/1951-8/3/1951 (74 photographs)

1951

5

3

Scrapbook No. 3, 8/3/1951-4/1/1952 (10 photographs)

1951-1952

5

4

Scrapbook No. 4, 4/6/1952-1/6/1953 (42 photographs)

1952-1953

5

5

Scrapbook No. 5, 12/28/1952-11/6/1953 (51 photographs)

1952-1953

5

6

Scrapbook No. 6, 10/10/1953-6/10/1954 (54 photographs)

1953-1954

5

7

Scrapbook No. 7, 4/30/1954-12/31/1954 (31 photographs)

1954

5

8

Scrapbook No. 8, 1/5/1955-8/5/1955 (6 photographs)

1955

5

9

Scrapbook No. 9, 8/5/1955-1/2/1956 (41 photographs)

1955-1956

5

10

Scrapbook No. 10, 1/3/1956-9/30/1956 (8 photographs)

1956