Three Missourians receive ‘Defender of Freedom’ awards in honor of late Stanley Herzog

Hundreds gathered on Monday evening in St. Joseph, Missouri, for the Stanley Herzog Memorial Defender of Freedom Awards, which honored the late businessman’s memory and three award recipients who continue his legacy. 

The event, hosted by the Missouri Republican Party at the St. Joseph Country Club, began with a Christian prayer, the presentation of colors by a local Boy Scout troop and the Pledge of Allegiance.

A 15-minute video tribute to Mr. Herzog, who died a very successful and politically active businessman at 70 in 2019, considered him among “the giants of our American heritage” not found in history books, “patriots who believe that freedom and faith walk hand in hand.”

In the video, some of Mr. Herzog’s closest friends and colleagues testified firsthand to “what Stanley Herzog meant to his community, to his state and to his nation.” The common thread in their stories was how each of them was given confidence, support and mentorship by one of Missouri’s most successful businessmen.

U.S. Rep. Sam Graves, R-Missouri, told how Mr. Herzog pledged to support him politically “from this point forward” after confirming the then-state senator voted against “a massive tax increase.”

Raising up others

Mr. Herzog’s political support and mentorship was his quiet way of leading young, talented up-and-comers to be entrepreneurial and confidently pursue principles of small government and capitalism in a state that had long seen Democrat majorities in the Legislature.

“No matter what we did, a lot of us started our own businesses and ventured out into political races,” recalled Herzog Foundation Chairman Todd Graves, founding partner of Graves Garrett Greim in Kansas City, “and you were a lot more brave, and you were a lot more committed, and you were a lot more willing to take risks, because you knew that Stan Herzog had your back. And he had all of our backs for a long time, and I will forever be grateful for that.”

“He really kind of paved the way for others to have the confidence to get involved at that level and impact politics and government at that level,” said Axiom Strategies CEO Jeff Roe, who worked on Sam Graves’ staff in the 1990s before launching a successful political consultancy business.

“It was not just a check that he wrote, but the confidence that he gave others to follow him, and so kind of trailblazing in a way that at that time and that moment in politics didn’t happen – for sure in Missouri or that many places around the country.”

The relationship between business and government was a central issue for Mr. Herzog, who believed the private sector always spends money better than the government, although electing good people was still essential.

“Elect people to office that understand the best government is a government that ensures less regulation, less litigation and less taxation,” said Herzog Corporation President and CEO Brad Lager (pictured above), whom Mr. Herzog trusted to succeed him in the business.

“He drilled it into us all and actually said, ‘Listen, if you elect good people, you will get good government. If you don’t elect good people, you will get a government that reflects the people you elect.’”

Three awards given

After the video played, a grateful Lager received the Spirit of Enterprise Award, one of three Defender of Freedom awards given during the evening.

The Lifetime Service Award went to Dean Brookshier, a longtime Missouri Republican who once worked on Sam Graves’ staff and held administrator positions at the municipal and county levels. The Youth Leadership Award went to Ethan Schmidt, president of the Kansas City Young Republicans and a program associate at the Herzog Foundation.

The Herzog Foundation, which publishes The Lion, has been operating for five years, carrying out its benefactor’s vision to advance Christian education around the country.

“He understood that America’s future depends on passing our faith and values to the next generation,” explained the narrator of the video tribute. “That conviction inspired him to advance Christian education, ensuring that truth, virtue and liberty endure.”

“We’re not building schools, we’re building a movement, and the movement will build the schools,” explained Todd Graves. “And we’ve been going now for probably five years, and we’ve come further in building that movement than I would have ever believed possible at the time – and we’re just beginning.

“As I said before, I think that Stan’s legacy will go down as one of the greatest impacts on private schooling, Christian schooling and culture in the history of the country, and we’re just getting started.”

“Now the work is ours,” concludes the video. “It falls to us to carry the banner of Faith and Freedom, to preserve the legacy of those like Stanley Herzog. His vision calls us to act, to serve and to believe that with God’s help, America’s best days still lie ahead. Thank you, Stanley for showing us the way.”