This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2004, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Here's what most people remember about the late George Romney: He was Mormon, the Republican governor of Michigan, a one-time candidate for U.S. president and the father of Mitt Romney, now Republican governor of Massachusetts.

A few old-timers also might recall Romney's 1967 comment about being "brainwashed" by the U.S. Army on a tour of Vietnam that probably cost him the Republican nomination.

But few know that Romney resigned from the Detroit Athletic Club because they wouldn't allow blacks, women or Jews to be members and refused to endorse Republican presidential candidate Sen. Barry Goldwater because of his record on civil rights. He defended the civil rights movement to LDS Church President and ultraconservative Ezra Taft Benson, walked in the funeral cortege with Coretta Scott King after her husband was assassinated and gave an impassioned tribute to the black activist at an LDS stake conference in Detroit.

Romney kissed his children on the lips, including the boys. He refused to work on Sunday, but served liquor at the governor's mansion and is not known to have ever handed out a Book of Mormon.

At 84, he bypassed the Secret Service at President Bush's Kennebunkport compound, let himself in and greeted the 41st president in his living room. Joan Kroc, widow of McDonald's founder Ray Kroc, gave George a card that got him free food at any McDonald's. It was a tattered piece of nothing before he was done with it.

Perhaps most important is that the LDS politician devoted the last 23 years of his life to promoting volunteerism.

All of these little-known facts about Romney, who died at 88 in 1996, can be found in a forthcoming biography by Sue Bergin, an Orem writer, and Bonner Ritchie, a scholar-in-residence at Utah Valley State College in Orem.

The book is tentatively titled A Walking Beacon: George Romney's Legacy of Citizen Service. The research was funded by the George W. Romney Institute of Public Management at Brigham Young University which was established in 1995 to promote public works, ethics, nonprofit organizations, and charity.

"There are other biographies of George's life," Ritchie said, "but none of them focus on the last part of his life when he became immersed in volunteerism."

Romney knew financial hardship as a child and saw it close-up while serving as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the slums of Glasgow, Scotland. After World War II, he witnessed the destitution and near starvation of many Europeans, according to Romney Institute's brochure about his life.

While working as an executive at American Motors in Detroit, Romney also helped establish the nation's first umbrella charity much like the United Way. After serving as governor from 1962 to 1968, he ran for president but dropped out early in the New Hampshire primaries after the "brainwashing" incident. Winner Richard Nixon tapped Romney for his secretary of Housing and Urban Development.

That's where he really honed his opinions about the need for public service, Ritchie said.

After leaving the Nixon White House, Romney founded the National Center for Voluntary Action and later helped create Bush's Points of Light Program.

"The 'thousand points of light' was Romney's phrase," Ritchie says.

The Presidents' Summit for America's Future in 1997, which brought together all the living presidents except Reagan - Ford, Carter, Bush and Clinton - was Romney's idea. When Colin Powell received an award from the Points of Light Foundation, he credited Romney as the inspiration for his work.

Romney was known for his favorite quotes, which he repeated endlessly to children, grandchildren and anyone who would listen.

"Volunteer centers should be as plentiful as the post office," he would say.

Ritchie loves Romney's take on public service.

"Volunteerism is an act of citizenship," Romney was known to say, "not an act of charity."