The Monday Memo | Chapter 1: Who is Russ “Wojo” Wojtkiewicz and Why Does He Deserve Your Vote?

I know voters often wonder: Who are these people asking for our vote? It’s a question that deserves scrutiny. Too often, we pick candidates based on a photo or a title without knowing the principles that drive them.

To understand where I’m going, you have to know where I came from.

I was fortunate to have grown up in a loving, hard working middle class family.  My parents sacrificed to give us great memories, taught us right from wrong and instilled moral principles to guide us.

My father’s story started in a multi-generational home in Omaha, raised by a single mother and immigrant grandparents who fled the turmoil of the Old World for the promise of the New. They were teenagers when they arrived in the late 1800s, eventually landing in Omaha with nothing but a drive to survive.

My father grew up in the shadow of the Depression, watching his mother work two jobs while his uncles helped look after him. They had very little, yet they still shared what they had with the hobos riding the rails behind their house in South Omaha.

That’s where the "Wojtkiewicz Standard" began: Work hard, take care of your own, and be charitable.

After a broken foot (which he hid so he could play baseball) briefly kept him out of the service, Dad was drafted into the Army in 1951. He ended up as a Staff Sergeant drilling recruits at Ft. Leonard Wood. It was on a weekend pass to Jefferson City that he met my mother at a Service Men’s Club.

That meeting changed the course of our family history— eventually leading me and my family here to Platte County.

Coming Wednesday in Chapter 2: From Boeing Security Clearances to a $1,500 Leap of Faith.

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