Merrill Eisenhower March of the Living
Merrill Eisenhower, a highly accomplished business executive, boasts a robust career encompassing business operations, business innovations, and international business. His unique expertise spans multiple industries, including healthcare, international diplomacy, oil and gas, aviation and construction management. With hands-on leadership experience across global markets, Merrill has consistently demonstrated his ability to deliver sustainable growth, operational efficiency, and long-term strategic initiatives.
As the great-grandson of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, Merrill’s heritage and dedication to public service have made him a frequent guest of honor among global political, governmental, and cultural leaders. His international achievements have earned him significant recognition, including his appointment as the Honorary Ambassador of Chuncheon City, South Korea, in acknowledgment of his efforts to foster cross-cultural and economic collaboration. Merrill’s distinguished career has garnered multiple prestigious awards, reflecting his leadership, diplomatic engagement, and global influence.
Beyond his professional endeavors, Merrill plays a prominent role in philanthropy and community leadership. He currently serves on the international Board of Directors for People to People International, an organization dedicated to fostering global understanding, as well as the Menaul School, the Eisenhower Foundation, and the United States Congressional Award Foundation. His previous board positions include serving with the United State Eisenhower Memorial Commission, National Association of State Aviation Officials, ASHTO, and the American Lung Association. The Federal Aviation Administration has recognized Merrill’s influence through the prestigious Impact Award.
Locally, Merrill’s impact is equally significant. He has been named to Ingram’s 40 Under 40 list, honoring the region’s most influential rising business leaders, and is a member of the Kansas City Chamber of Commerce Leadership Circle. Additionally, he has been recognized in Who’s Who for his outstanding contributions to the nonprofit sector, and was awarded the “Keeper of Memories Award” from the International March of the Living.
Merrill’s educational background includes a Master of Business Administration with a specialization in international business from Baker University, and a Bachelor of Science in History and Interpersonal Communications from Missouri Western State University.
Currently, Merrill serves as the Chief Strategy Officer for Building Resources and Legacy Health Group, where he is responsible for shaping and executing the organizations’ long-term strategic visions. In these roles, Merrill drives innovation, operational efficiency, and business development initiatives that align with the evolving demands of the market. His ability to blend business strategy with a commitment to community service makes him a
respected leader, both locally and globally, who consistently delivers impact across multiple sectors.
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-Transcript-
Brad Burrow (00:01):
Welcome to In a World With Real Media. I’m your host, Brad Burrow. In this podcast, we’ll dive into the lives of the most successful people in business. We’ll learn how they overcame adversity, took advantage of opportunities and learned from their experiences. Learn from our experts. Get inspired, then go live your story. It’s in a world with real media. Hello and welcome to the In A World With Real Media Podcast. I’m Brad Burrow, and today we have a very special guest, Merrill Eisenhower, and he is the great grandson of Ike.
Merrill Eisenhower (00:40):
That’s correct.
Brad Burrow (00:41):
My great-grandfather. And if you know who Ike is, you may have to Google that, right.
Merrill Eisenhower (00:46):
Some people may. For sure,
Brad Burrow (00:48):
For sure. But just for the record, I met Meryl getting to work with you on a project. Now I want to get this, the March of the Living, which I didn’t know anything about, which Jack Cashel called me. And of course, we’d love to help. And then I started doing a little bit of research on the March of the Living. It’s like, oh my gosh, I’ve got to go. I’ve got to go there. You even mentioned to me, I don’t know if you remember the day that you were in when we were shooting, you said, maybe I should take a video crew. And I’m like, let’s go. And that looked like a really cool thing.
Merrill Eisenhower (01:25):
It was definitely surreal for sure. Whenever you start thinking about what the March of Living is. So for those, the people that don’t know, the March of Living is a remembrance time where they walked from Auschwitz to Birkenau in reverse of the Nazi death camps.
Brad Burrow (01:41):
Yeah. Yeah. And the idea was that, was it called the March of Death or something like that? They would go from where you guys are walking the opposite direction. They would go to their death basically.
Merrill Eisenhower (01:54):
They would do the same type of March without shoes with very little clothes. 1.3 million people died in 18 months of Auschwitz and
Brad Burrow (02:04):
Birkenau,
Merrill Eisenhower (02:05):
Absolutely horrendous. One of the darkest times in human history. And my great-grandfather was part of the liberation of concentration camps and death camps, which is why I participated in it. And more importantly, is understanding more of what happened. It’s not my first time that I’ve been to Auschwitz and Kinau, but it was probably the most meaningful.
Brad Burrow (02:25):
Yeah. So I want to get into that. I actually, you and I were talking, I actually watched the live stream and seeing it on live stream is one thing. Being there has got to be a completely different thing, and I want to talk about that. But first, let’s start. I want to hear about where you grew up. Did you grow up in Abilene or in Kansas? Where did you grow up?
Merrill Eisenhower (02:47):
So actually, I grew up in a town called Huntsville, Alabama. It’s a city pretty large. Redstone arsenals there. Great place. I went to boarding school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Valley Forge Military Academy. And then I went to,
Brad Burrow (03:00):
Did you have trouble getting accepted into that?
Merrill Eisenhower (03:02):
No, that was pretty easy. That one was pretty
Brad Burrow (03:05):
Easy.
Merrill Eisenhower (03:05):
They were like, yeah, I guess we can let you come to our school. But then I ended up in St. Joe, Missouri at Missouri Western State University, where I graduated there with a history degree.
Brad Burrow (03:14):
No
Merrill Eisenhower (03:14):
Kidding. And ended up getting my MBA at Baker. So I’ve spent no kidding, spent all my adult life in the Kansas City metropolitan area. And of course, my family goes back in Kansas to the mid 18 hundreds, so 1850s.
Brad Burrow (03:28):
Oh, is that right? Wow. That far back
Merrill Eisenhower (03:30):
Pioneers. Really? Whenever they talk about the Dust Bowl and they talk about selling the west, my family was part of that.
Brad Burrow (03:36):
Yeah. Yeah. I used to live in western Kansas, so we’d drive by Abilene all the time in Salina, and right down I 70,
Merrill Eisenhower (03:42):
Right down I 70. It’s kind of funny, when my great grandfather was president of the United States, there was a rule that for every 4,000 people community there would be an exit ramp because they needed to get on and off. Abilene didn’t have 4,000 people, but it’s still got an exit ramp. So I wonder why that is. I
Brad Burrow (03:59):
Don’t know.
Merrill Eisenhower (04:00):
But it’s kind of one of those fun little tidbits of history.
Brad Burrow (04:03):
So do you get back to Abilene very often?
Merrill Eisenhower (04:04):
I’m there all the time. I sit on the board of directors of, or excuse me, I sit on the advisory board of the Eisenhower Foundation, which is the website that’s pulled up there. And I spend a lot of time there. My mom lives there, and of course I have relatives that live out there still to this day.
Brad Burrow (04:21):
So it was college that brought you to Kansas City then in the area?
Merrill Eisenhower (04:24):
Well, my mom actually moved here while I was in my senior year of high school. And so I was just like, well be close to my mom, but not close enough. Because at 18 years old, you really don’t want to be that close.
Brad Burrow (04:36):
I’ve been through that three times now.
Merrill Eisenhower (04:37):
Absolutely. So I was close enough where I could drive back if I needed to with an hour, but for farther enough away to have my own independence.
Brad Burrow (04:45):
Yeah, that’s awesome. The chief’s training camp is there now.
Merrill Eisenhower (04:49):
So actually about that, that all started. Don Wilson was the guy that was in charge of bringing the chiefs to St. Joseph, Missouri, because before they were out of state when they did their training camp
Brad Burrow (05:01):
In Minnesota.
Merrill Eisenhower (05:02):
Yeah, absolutely. And so Don Wilson actually got that done, and I was on actually the student council, or the college student council at the time as a senator, and we had to vote on it and all this stuff. It was a big production.
Brad Burrow (05:17):
The student council had to approve
Merrill Eisenhower (05:18):
That. They did. They approved it as well.
Brad Burrow (05:20):
Wow. Well, now it’s a huge deal. You got Pat going up there and the chiefs are doing well. It a
Merrill Eisenhower (05:26):
Cool thing. You can’t beat the chiefs. I mean, and the Royals are playing pretty good too. What Dayton Moore did, building up the minor league team and the system that he put in place was amazing. And I sad to see him leave the Royals, actually. Well,
Brad Burrow (05:40):
He’s still in Kansas
Merrill Eisenhower (05:41):
City. He is. He’s right down the
Brad Burrow (05:42):
Road. There’s things happening around Dayton Moore right now. We won’t say anything, but he was just here on a podcast. We do City Union Missions
Merrill Eisenhower (05:49):
Podcast. Oh, yeah. That’s a big one for
Brad Burrow (05:50):
Him. And so he’s a big supporter of them and my boys not to get off on a rabbit trail, but my boys are baseball kids, and so they all played growing up, and my middle son pitched in college.
Merrill Eisenhower (06:04):
Oh, wow. That’s
Brad Burrow (06:04):
Awesome. But Dayton’s kid, his boy went to Kent City Christian where my boys went to school. And so anyway, we know him a little bit. But it’s fun. We always have fun talking to Dayton about baseball.
Merrill Eisenhower (06:18):
Such a nice guy.
Brad Burrow (06:19):
He
Merrill Eisenhower (06:19):
Really is human being.
Brad Burrow (06:20):
Yeah, he’s very approachable, very open to talking with you and has some very strong convictions about things that need to happen, and it’s awesome. Yeah. So ended up in Kansas City, went to college here, and you’ve stayed here.
Merrill Eisenhower (06:37):
I have. Kansas City is home. I can see why my great-grandfather said in one of his speeches that the greatest thing that he can claim is that he’s from Abilene, Kansas is a unique place. If I was to describe Kansas to people, it’s kind of like this. You can still do business with a handshake and what you say actually happens and it’s a unique thing like that.
Brad Burrow (07:00):
Yeah. What do you think that is? Just Midwestern values or why are we like that?
Merrill Eisenhower (07:06):
I think our values speak for themselves. I mean, when you look at things that go on in the country, and you look at some of the major, major cities, not that Kansas City isn’t a major city. It is a very large city. But when you start thinking about that and you think about who we are as a people, we’re the ones that settled this country. We’re the ones that grew this country. We’re the ones that farm this country. We’re the ones that bring you your oil, we bring you your planes. That’s what Kansas does. And we don’t ask for handouts, and we work hard together. And if somebody needs to borrow a cup of sugar, then come knock on my door. It’s not a big deal. So that’s who we are as a people.
Brad Burrow (07:42):
The world needs more of that right now.
Merrill Eisenhower (07:43):
100%. What I always tell people is that it’s just as easy to give someone a smile than to ignore ’em and ask ’em how their day is. It’s that simple. And if everybody in the world did that and smiled and said, how was your day? The world would be a better
Brad Burrow (07:58):
Place. So I agree completely. So what did you know about your great-grandfather growing up? I mean, nothing.
Merrill Eisenhower (08:07):
Nothing.
Brad Burrow (08:08):
Okay.
Merrill Eisenhower (08:08):
Why would you? Right. So it’s just stories to me. You don’t really actually understand this stuff. So when I was growing up, I grew up.
Brad Burrow (08:16):
So you had no sense of who he was or anything?
Merrill Eisenhower (08:18):
Not at all. It didn’t really hit me until I was in my late teens, early twenties when I was like, oh, I guess he was kind of important.
Brad Burrow (08:24):
Wow. Oh my gosh.
Merrill Eisenhower (08:26):
But it’s just stories, right? Did I know that he was president of the United States? Yes. Did I know that at the time, there hadn’t been 40 and then there was 40 and now there’s 45. Yes. I knew that was important, but really when you start thinking about it and you hear about the stories, you hear about people like Al coming to the house to visit Ike, and you hear about Khrushchev coming over to the house to visit Ike, and the arguments and fights that happened with Khrushchev and Ike at the farm in Gettysburg, you start hearing about these things. You think it’s normal, right?
Brad Burrow (08:56):
So
Merrill Eisenhower (08:57):
It’s no big deal. You don’t think about it. But then as you’re getting older and you start going to more and more things, it starts becoming a bigger deal. And you start understanding that Ike wasn’t just president. He was the general and supreme Alec commander of all foreign forces during World War ii. And then you start learning more and more about that, and you start reading the history and you start asking questions, and you visit the library more, and you start actually having a good understanding and grasp of it, and it becomes part of
Brad Burrow (09:29):
You. Mayor, I remember when we shot your video and we’d stop in between takes and you would start sharing history. I could tell you’re a student of history. I mean, was that driven by just wanting to learn about your great-grandfather or is that just something in your DNA?
Merrill Eisenhower (09:47):
Actually, my grandfather John was, which is Ike’s son,
Brad Burrow (09:51):
He
Merrill Eisenhower (09:51):
Was actually a historian by training. It went to West Point, actually. It was brigadier General in the Army. A lot of people don’t know
Brad Burrow (09:57):
That,
Merrill Eisenhower (09:57):
And an ambassador to Belgium, which is really cool.
(10:01):
But then he ended up writing books throughout his whole life afterwards. I’m dyslexic, so I’m a severe dys. I am. So if someone’s like, Hey, you need to read this, I’d be like, okay, give me a couple minutes to read through it and then I can read it again out loud or something like that. So it’s one of those weird things, but it didn’t stop me from wanting to learn. And so what it did is, in college, for example, it might take someone an hour and a half to do their homework. It would take me three hours. I just put in the work. And that’s our Midwestern
Brad Burrow (10:35):
Values developed
Merrill Eisenhower (10:36):
Your
Brad Burrow (10:36):
Work ethic then.
Merrill Eisenhower (10:37):
Exactly. And that’s led me to the success and business that I’ve had over the years. And also it’s helped me with my kids because I understand the amount of patience and of respect for my mother and father. The amount of patience that it takes to raise kids, and the more I know, the older I get,
Brad Burrow (10:56):
Did they know you were dyslexic?
Merrill Eisenhower (10:57):
Absolutely. But it was different back then. They didn’t have the same type of things that they have today. Today you can go to classes and you can do all these different things, but back then it was, oh, you’re dyslexic. You’re not graduating high school. That’s why I went to Valley Forge Military Academy where they said, you’re dyslexic. Oh, okay. Well, too bad. Keep doing your work. And so I learned that. And nobody’s going to give you a handout in life. Nobody’s going to give you a free pass. Some people do have it better than others. There’s no doubt about that. But at the end of the day, you are what you put into yourself.
Brad Burrow (11:29):
Yeah. Do you ever feel the need, looking back at Ike’s career and you being such a historian and really diving into the details of that, you might be the reason a lot of that’s remembered or you know what I mean? It’s like we’re doing a documentary on the history of women’s basketball right now, and a lot of the ladies that we’re talking about, it’s pre-Title ix. They’re 80 or 90 years old now. And so we’ve captured 120 interviews of some of the top ladies in women’s basketball back before the NCAA said you could play women’s basketball. So we’re preserving that history. I kind of sensed that with you as well. It’s like the history so well, it’s in here. Have you thought about it? It’s like, man, I need to figure out a way to keep this going for generation after generation.
Merrill Eisenhower (12:22):
So to take on someone else’s burden is very hard to do. So I don’t consider it as a responsibility of mine. I consider it as a privilege, and it is a privilege to be a part of my family. It’s a privilege to have the Eisenhower name attached to it, especially in Kansas. It means a lot
Brad Burrow (12:40):
Here.
Merrill Eisenhower (12:42):
But most importantly is that if I don’t do it, who’s going to do it? And that’s the question that you have to ask. So I’ve been given a lot. So I give a lot. So when I go to the International March of Living, for example, that just happened not too long ago. I gave everything I had to it. It’s not because I felt like I had to, it’s because it’s the right thing to do. And so the next generation that doesn’t learn the same things in history books, and maybe they don’t have an opportunity to go out to Abilene, Kansas to go visit the library. I’ll speak to any school, I’ll talk to any rotary club about it. Education’s the key to everything because history repeats itself every 80 years. I didn’t study World War II history in college. I studied actually the Crusades because that’s my area of interest actually in history. But everything can go back again. Everything goes back to
Brad Burrow (13:37):
Crusades. So you see the pattern
Merrill Eisenhower (13:38):
100%. I can tell you from about 800 to now how the pattern has worked and how it’s moved,
Brad Burrow (13:44):
How do we break that pattern? I guess that’s the question, huh?
Merrill Eisenhower (13:47):
Education.
Brad Burrow (13:48):
Yeah.
Merrill Eisenhower (13:48):
You have to stop deed educating the population. You have to make sure that they have an understanding, a basic understanding of logic and reason with the ability to work for themselves.
Brad Burrow (13:57):
We’re in an interesting time right now because I think that the younger kids are being educated completely different than we were, obviously.
Merrill Eisenhower (14:04):
Of course.
Brad Burrow (14:05):
And there’s so many ways to connect with people. I wonder, have you thought about that moving forward? How do you educate a teenager about what happened?
Merrill Eisenhower (14:18):
Don’t be afraid. History is what it’s, you can’t take down statues. You can’t change it. It is what it is, and it’s okay that it is what it is. The second we stop, the second, we take down those statues. The second we stop remembering people, the second we start changing names, the second we start washing out the history, it will repeat itself.
Brad Burrow (14:44):
That’s happening right now.
Merrill Eisenhower (14:45):
It is 100%. That’s why the international, again, going back to the March of Living, the reason why I’m saying that is they’re living the history. And by going to that and meeting with 80 Holocaust survivors and all the kids that are there, gives me hope for the future. Because people will learn and are learning, but we can’t be afraid to talk about facts. We can’t be afraid to talk about what actually happened. Because how else do you learn?
Brad Burrow (15:13):
There’s an assault on facts right now, don’t you think?
Merrill Eisenhower (15:15):
Of course. I mean, nobody
Brad Burrow (15:17):
Wants to know the truth
Merrill Eisenhower (15:18):
And the truth. The truth isn’t fun sometimes.
(15:21):
And when you take it back, brown versus Board of Education, that’s the 80th anniversary this year, right? The truth is the United 80. Yeah, the truth, exactly. The truth is that it was a difficult decision. It was something that had to happen. And it was really the first movement, real movement, and the civil rights movement. So we had the Civil Rights Act that was passed during the Eisenhower administration who started the Civil Rights Movement, really on the legislative side. But then Brown for the Board of Education was separate. Isn’t equal equals equal. And that’s important to understand because when you look at Little Rock, Arkansas, for example, when Ike sent the hundred first Airborne in a set of precedence, that’s the first time since reconstruction that the United States military went in to fix a problem. And so it’s something that we have to understand in a country. And now we’re how many years later? Almost 80 this week. Right. And now we’re talking about it again, because the laws are not being enforced by governors. It’s an interesting thing. And again, I’m not making judgment, I’m just talking facts.
Brad Burrow (16:35):
Yeah, yeah, yeah. That’s very interesting. Well, let’s switch gears a little bit. I want to kind of go over to the March for Life a little bit. Talk about what was his role in that? Obviously you got presented an award for him, liberating.
Merrill Eisenhower (16:54):
Absolutely. Do you mind if I talk about Ike real fast before we get into it? No, I’ll tie this all together real fast. That’s great. I think it’s important. So when we think of president of the United States, we think of people that have wealth and have accumulated power, and we think about people that have extraordinary circumstances, but they typically come from privilege. My great-grandfather wasn’t that. My great-grandfather grew up on the wrong side of tracks in Abilene, Kansas, meaning he was dirt poor. He was so poor and discriminated against that when he went to deliver milk from the creamery to the Sealy mansion, which was the very wealthy house in town, he wasn’t allowed on the porch. He had to put it on the porch because they wouldn’t let him on the porch because of who he was in his family.
Brad Burrow (17:40):
Wow.
Merrill Eisenhower (17:40):
So when we talk about privilege, Ike didn’t have any, when we talk about poor Ike was that, and his mother graduated from Compton, LA Compton University, or college, I guess it was at the time, in the 18 hundreds as a woman, which is unbelievable. But what she did was she instilled the value of education onto her kids, onto her boys, and each one of them ended up going to college. And the one that did the worst was a pharmacist.
Brad Burrow (18:09):
Is that right? Yes. Wow.
Merrill Eisenhower (18:11):
Yeah. One of ’em worked their way up from being a janitor all the way to VP of Commerce Bank. And of course, Milton Eisenhower became president of John Hopkins University,
(18:20):
And it goes on. So why do I say that? I say that because Ike was never supposed to be in the military. He went there because it was a free education. He wasn’t able to go into Annapolis because he was too old whenever he was applying, because he would put his brother through college, and there was nobody left to put him through college. So he applied to Annapolis, was rejected because of his age, wrote letter after letter after letter, and finally got into West Point. So he wasn’t supposed to be in the military in World War. He never saw combat. He never went overseas. He was stuck at different bases doing things like strategic strategy and also coaching football, believe it or not. Is that right? Yeah. Wow. He was eight years old. He contracted blood poisoning in his right leg and almost had it amputated again, not supposed to be there. And when he was at West Point, he broke that same leg and they wanted to kick him out of the army, but he stayed. So by the time World War I happened, he never went overseas. He never saw a combat. And by World War II in 1938, when the war started, he was a colonel.
(19:25):
He was a colonel
Brad Burrow (19:26):
Like Meic
Merrill Eisenhower (19:27):
Eyes. He was like mediocre rank in the military, but we was still in Kernel is mediocre rank. I mean, it is high middle. It’s not top it, right? So it’s like almost right in the middle. So he planned to do little raids and then got a star and then got another star, and then eventually became in charge of North Africa and became the Supreme all commander of all Ally forces. But there was many times in his career, and this is actually the film that’s showing some of that. There’s many times in his career where he never should have been in the military. He should have left the military, but he stayed for multitude of reasons. But he stayed. He ended up doing well, becoming the Supreme Ballet commander, and eventually president of the United States. So the boy that had to wear his mother’s shoes to school because they couldn’t afford shoes, ended up becoming president of the United States through pure hard work.
Brad Burrow (20:26):
That’s the American,
Merrill Eisenhower (20:27):
Right? So when the war started, or when we entered the war, we knew that there was concentration camps. We knew there was things that were going on. We just weren’t in the war. So by 41, when we were doing North Africa, and by 43 when we were planning D-Day, June 6th, 1944, when we landed in D-Day, it took from there to the next May for us to defeat the Nazi. Right?
(20:55):
About halfway through France, the rumor started getting way worse. And then by the time Ike came, he liberated. They liberated the first concentration camp. Ike forced his people to take photos and invited the press Congress, everyone, because he knew it had to be on record. So his role with the March of the Living is that he was the person that said, this happened. We need to document it, because one day they’re going to say, it never happened, or it wasn’t as bad as it is, and the proof is today because what are they saying today?
Brad Burrow (21:28):
Yeah, he knew that.
Merrill Eisenhower (21:30):
Absolutely. Absolutely. So when I was asked to be on the march, it was a very much an honor to be asked, first of all, and then to go on it. To me, it was surreal because I’m going to Auschwitz where I said it before, but 1.3 million people died. And you start thinking about that, and you start realizing it. And I’ve been to the tour before, and I was fine for a while. Reading the books that I’ve read and understanding, seeing pictures, I’ve seen this stuff before. So there’s no shock value there. But what I wasn’t prepared for was the children. And that’s the part that killed me. I cried more than any grown man ever should cry
(22:12):
When you see that every single time. And that was the second time I’ve seen it, and I knew it was coming and just bawled like a baby. But the next day, we did the march, and we walked from Auschwitz to Kinau, just like all those people before. And what’s interesting is 80 years, exactly 80 years before, whenever the same people were going to their deaths to be exterminated and murdered, they had no hope. But whenever I was walking, you had people singing, you had people celebrating the fact that we remember all of these horrible, horrific things that happened, the worst of humanity.
Brad Burrow (22:53):
And
Merrill Eisenhower (22:55):
Being a part of that was very, very, very important. And something that me and my wife will never forget.
Brad Burrow (23:00):
Yeah, I can’t even imagine. So I watched some of the events you can watch and probably can go to the website. I’ll put that in the show notes or something. But you can watch the events on YouTube. They streamed ’em live, but it’s still recorded. And seeing the singers, it was like a celebration. But I dunno, there’s something about it that was just very compelling to me in watching how people were handling that
Merrill Eisenhower (23:30):
Every step that you take, walking back through remembering that historical moment is cleansing the evil that happened before. And so every time you get a chance to walk through that, anybody that ever goes, and you have an opportunity to see, just remember you being there, is remembering and respecting all the people that died there.
Brad Burrow (23:51):
Yeah. Yeah. I would love to go.
Merrill Eisenhower (23:53):
You should.
Brad Burrow (23:53):
Yeah.
Merrill Eisenhower (23:53):
Maybe next year.
Brad Burrow (23:54):
Yeah, I really would. Are there survivors? There’s still survivors from that.
Merrill Eisenhower (23:59):
There are. There’s not many left.
(24:03):
I had the privilege of meeting 80 of ’em, and it’s one of those things you don’t think about. I always think of Ike as a World War II general as President of the United States, and I think about all the great things he did as president and understanding that he did this, but we don’t really think about the fact that he was the person that liberated these concentration camps. Not him, exactly. But his troops were the ones, and he was in charge of doing that. And the fact that he understood history and he wanted that history recorded was probably the most single most important thing in World War ii. Not just winning the war,
Brad Burrow (24:44):
But
Merrill Eisenhower (24:44):
Recording the atrocities that happened and seeing people that survived. This one lady, for example, her name’s Eva. She was born three days before the camp was liberated, and the night before they ran out of gas, so she wasn’t murdered.
Brad Burrow (25:01):
Oh my gosh.
Merrill Eisenhower (25:03):
Wow. I mean, just hearing these stories, another guy, his name was first, he walked the death camp in Dau, walked to his death, and ended up being liberated right before. And so you’re seeing all of these different people that happened, and it’s absolutely incredible. And the stories are remarkable.
Brad Burrow (25:26):
And what is it like being with them at a place like that? I mean, that’s
Merrill Eisenhower (25:29):
Humbling.
Brad Burrow (25:30):
Yeah.
Merrill Eisenhower (25:31):
Could you imagine? I mean, their whole lives, they’ve had to live with memories of all this death and destruction, and we take it for granted in this country, we have no idea or can comprehend something like that because we haven’t dealt with it.
Brad Burrow (25:47):
Right, right. War and all the things that are happening yet. Yet exactly
Merrill Eisenhower (25:51):
Right. The last war that touched our soils was what? The war 18, 12. I mean, maybe if you want to count Poncho Vida in the 1840s, but that’s it. I mean, we have no idea. And Europe is constantly in war. Again, I mean, it’s in war right now, but it’s one of those things where we have to take a serious look of what’s important.
Brad Burrow (26:14):
Now, Ike wasn’t actually part of the, I mean, I know he was part of the liberation. He wasn’t with the troops when that happened.
Merrill Eisenhower (26:21):
He went to the camps.
Brad Burrow (26:22):
He did.
Merrill Eisenhower (26:22):
Okay. He was one of the people that he absolutely, once he heard Word, he went to the camps and he made his officers go to those camps. And he was the only general
Brad Burrow (26:30):
That he wanted them to take in.
Merrill Eisenhower (26:31):
Absolutely. And he’s the only general that in upper command, Patton wouldn’t go to the camps. Bradley didn’t go to the camps. He did. And that’s where he said, we need to bear witness on this.
Brad Burrow (26:42):
What do you know about that event? I mean, do you know anything about, I dunno. I can’t fathom what that might’ve been like. Him coming up there and being the leader of the troops and then setting the example of, we need to remember this.
Merrill Eisenhower (26:58):
So my grandfather, John, was his ADA camp. So two things happened. One in June 6th, 1944, one D-Day happened. And then two, my grandfather graduated West Point through the early commissioning program. It was sent to be at a camp to Ike, which was interesting. So he was actually the one that was taking the photos.
Brad Burrow (27:17):
Oh, is that right?
Merrill Eisenhower (27:18):
And I asked him one time, and he said, there’s some things we just don’t talk about. And so it was that bad. It was that bad.
Brad Burrow (27:27):
I mean, would be life-changing, seeing that it, and
Merrill Eisenhower (27:31):
They didn’t have it the way they have it now with PTSD and all that stuff. That wasn’t even a diagnosed thing.
Brad Burrow (27:35):
Could
Merrill Eisenhower (27:35):
You imagine what those troops had to go through? Oh,
Brad Burrow (27:37):
Man.
Merrill Eisenhower (27:37):
And not just them, the people that were there that survived. When you walk in and you have to ration out water and food to people because they’re so malnutrition, they have so much malnutrition that it’ll kill ’em if they have too much or eat too much. I can’t even imagine having to say no to somebody that hasn’t eaten in the way that they were skeletons, literally walking skeletons.
Brad Burrow (28:01):
Yeah. Hard to believe they’re even alive.
Merrill Eisenhower (28:04):
I can’t. And what the Jewish people had to endure during World War II and throughout history. I mean, you can go back all the way to Ramseys is really remarkable. And I’d never understood why. And that’s the question that you have to ask yourself when you read history is what is the point of this? Why is it this one population, this one group? But there was 300,000 other people that died too at Auschwitz and Kinau, gypsies, people of color, people of clergy, people that were part of the church were killed. So it wasn’t just Jewish people. The main thing was the extermination of the Jews of the Find solution.
Brad Burrow (28:47):
And this event’s going to keep going every year.
Merrill Eisenhower (28:49):
It sounds like.
Brad Burrow (28:50):
We going to keep it going a long
Merrill Eisenhower (28:51):
Time. Yeah. It’s been going on for 27 years. And the lady in charge of it, her name’s Phyllis. She’s a wonderful lady.
Brad Burrow (28:58):
I believe I talked to her
Merrill Eisenhower (28:59):
Actually. You probably did. She probably did. She’s about this tall,
Brad Burrow (29:03):
Well, I was on a phone call or something with her. I didn’t actually get to see her, but I did talk to the guy that actually is a producer for the event, and he lives in Israel. I can’t remember his name, but it was really interesting. He was awesome. I’ve really enjoyed speaking with him. We had to figure out some logistics and things, but the night before I spoke with them, they had the sirens going off, and I’m like, what is that? He goes, well, it’s just part of a life, your life when you live in Israel.
Merrill Eisenhower (29:39):
And I try not to give too political whenever I can, because I like to live in the world of facts, not opinions, but factually is not an opinion. If all the people in Israel put down their arms, what would happen? You have to ask yourself that question. And if all the people in Hamas put down their arms, what would happen? So I’ll leave that to your imagination. I think that me saying that alone answers your question. And the truth is that you have a land that is sitting there, that people that live there are protecting themselves. And if everybody leaves them alone, nothing happens. Yeah. That’s just factual. I mean, they don’t start wars. They defend themselves.
Brad Burrow (30:29):
Yeah. Yeah. Well, it was interesting, and I ask him, he goes, what do you do when the sirens are going off and we just go into the basement and the chances of us getting hit by a missile are very low,
Merrill Eisenhower (30:43):
Very low.
Brad Burrow (30:44):
But imagine being in the United States, and that was your way of life. And it’s like, oh, honey, the sirens are going off. We need to go to the basement. It’s not a tornado. We
Merrill Eisenhower (30:54):
Wouldn’t tolerate it here.
Brad Burrow (30:55):
No. I
Merrill Eisenhower (30:55):
Mean, think about it in a different way. When nine 11 happened, what did we do? So when nine 11 happened, we went and invaded two countries.
Brad Burrow (31:04):
Right,
Merrill Eisenhower (31:05):
Right.
Brad Burrow (31:06):
Went on the offensive.
Merrill Eisenhower (31:07):
That’s right. For two years. Right.
Brad Burrow (31:09):
Rules
Merrill Eisenhower (31:10):
Of engagement may be a little bit different, but again, the United States hasn’t seen a total war since World War ii. We actually technically haven’t been in a war since World War ii. We’ve been in conflicts or freedom re government, whatever you want to call it. So if you think about it in that sense, that’s proportionally, that was their nine 11. What happened October 7th? And again, I live in the world of just information, not opinion. What would we have done?
Brad Burrow (31:42):
We would’ve
Merrill Eisenhower (31:43):
Done exactly what they’re doing.
Brad Burrow (31:44):
Yes.
Merrill Eisenhower (31:45):
So say otherwise, it’s hypocritical.
Brad Burrow (31:47):
Yeah. Yeah. I agree. I agree. It’s heavy stuff.
Merrill Eisenhower (31:52):
It’s unfortunate. It has to be. But the truth is, is that nothing changes if we just ignore it. You have to talk about the heavy things. If you’re uncomfortable listening to stuff like this and talking about this stuff, then you have been spoiled in this country. You need to be able to talk about it and listen to it. Because if we don’t talk about it, we don’t listen, we don’t learn, then we’re just going to repeat ourselves,
Brad Burrow (32:19):
Which the 80 year rule,
Merrill Eisenhower (32:22):
80 year curse of history.
Brad Burrow (32:23):
Yeah. One of the things I wanted to ask you, obviously you said when you’re 16 to 20 years old, you started learning about your great-grandfather. How has that influenced you? I mean, obviously you’re successful in business, you’re leadership, all those things. I mean, that’s kind of in your DNA.
Merrill Eisenhower (32:51):
Yes and no. So not everybody that is in my family successful in the way that I am. Everybody’s a little bit different, but you have a choice. And for me, it’s a no brainer. You try to be a good person. You try to help people and remember to try to do the right thing no matter what it does to you. And that’s tough to live with.
Brad Burrow (33:21):
That is tough,
Merrill Eisenhower (33:23):
But it’s the right thing to
Brad Burrow (33:24):
Do. Yes.
Merrill Eisenhower (33:25):
So for example, every person that I meet, especially whenever I’m in my capacity representing the family, more than likely I’m the closest thing. And I’m not trying to sound arrogant. I apologize if it comes across that way, but you asked it a direct question, how it affects me. This is how a lot of times, I’m the closest thing that they’ll ever be to a president of the United States, and I’m not president of the United States. I have no desire to be president of the United States. My great-grandfather was president of the United States, and he was a very good president,
(34:02):
And he is loved. So the way I see it is that every story that I hear about someone else’s grandfather, every story that I hear about someone else’s father, someone else tells me that they were at Boy Scouts and they saw him. It matters to me more than, and I give every single person as much time as I possibly can every single time, because again, it might be the closest thing to them to a president, but also every single one of their memories is important to me and my family because it is a reflection on something that our family did and got to be a part of their lives. When you talk about success and you talk about business and all of that, I take a lot of that stuff to what I do in business. So I try to give everybody time. I try to treat everybody with respect, and I try to be kind because it’s just as easy to be kind as it is to be a jerk. It’s actually easier to be kind once you get in the habit of it. It’s super, super fun
Brad Burrow (35:02):
As
Merrill Eisenhower (35:03):
You make people’s day.
Brad Burrow (35:04):
Yeah. The motivations for business are different when you think that way, right? It is. It’s like, obviously we’re in business, we want to make a living and all those things, but when that’s your only motivation, it kind of changes the way you handle people
Merrill Eisenhower (35:22):
And everybody’s different. But for me, how it works for me is I try to just do the right thing regardless, and I’d much rather be the one that gets screwed over than to screw somebody else over. You don’t always win on that. Right? Sometimes there’s other things that happen that are out of your control, but you try to do the right thing at all times. Try.
Brad Burrow (35:42):
You
Merrill Eisenhower (35:42):
Don’t always succeed.
Brad Burrow (35:43):
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Doing the right thing hurts sometimes too, doesn’t it? Very badly. Very badly. Especially if you’re trying to make money. I’ve seen that in the past. It’s like, well, okay, we got to do this. It’s not going to be great for us.
Merrill Eisenhower (35:59):
And the paradigm shift of business is so unique. So when I talk about business, I say it’s really simple. Business is very, very easy. Do you have a product that the consumer wants or not? Okay. That’s the easy part of business. The hard part is the people, right? So that’s the hardest part. So yes, the consumer wants the product, but do you have the right people pushing the product? Do you have the right people doing this? You have the right people doing that. And so the leadership side of it is understanding the people that you’re working with, understanding the people that you’re dealing with, and trying to make those people better.
Brad Burrow (36:36):
Do you think that was why Ike was so successful? Obviously he was a very gifted leader, motivating people and winning people. You can’t be present if you can’t win people.
Merrill Eisenhower (36:48):
True.
Brad Burrow (36:48):
And I see this is not to puff you up or anything like that, but I see that in you. I see. Wanting to help people. Is that a key leadership thing that you get from him, you think?
Merrill Eisenhower (37:03):
So for me, my needs are a lot of times secondary to other people’s needs. So I try to put people first. I mean, obviously I have to make a living and I have to make some money, but there’s other things that you can do to make money, and they’re not quite as ethical and those types of things. That’s not me. My thing is that if I surround myself and I can look myself in the mirror every single day saying that I’ve done the right thing and I do the right thing, or try very hard to do it, even if you fail sometimes it makes it better. Ike was gifted because he was able to take small bits of information and create plans with it and adjust the egos in his room. And this is a very important business lesson, very important. He was able to take the egos in the room and have ’em work together.
(37:59):
And that’s hard to do no matter who you are in business, I don’t care if you’re Donald Trump and the White House today, or Barack Obama when he was in the White House. Having to manage those egos is unbelievable because the people that are working for you are some of the brightest and smartest people in the world. And so why would you think they wouldn’t have an ego? Every person has an ego, and every person is ticked different. It doesn’t matter who you are. And so being able to penetrate that first and second layer of surface level stuff and understand what actually motivates them is what’s important. One of the things that I thought was very unique, and it taught me a lot, is have you ever seen the picture where Ike is standing in front of the hundred first Airborne and he’s like this talking to the guy.
Brad Burrow (38:50):
I don’t recall it.
Merrill Eisenhower (38:51):
Okay, well, I can share.
Brad Burrow (38:52):
We’ll bring it up now.
Merrill Eisenhower (38:53):
Yeah. So he’s sitting there talking to the guy like this, and I was talking to my mother. My mother met the guy in the pitcher, number 23, met the guy in the pitcher. I was like, what were they talking about? He goes, fly fishing. Fly fishing. Said it’s a cast that he was doing. He wasn’t talking to him in a mean way or being rude or trying to motivate him. He was like, well, you got to catch that because Ike was a fly fisher. So he found in the 10 seconds that he had, he said, where are you from? Oh, great fishing up there. I fly fished up there a few times, and that’s what he was doing. The day D-Day was happening, that hundred first Airborne trooper went into the behind the enemy line shortly after that and was fighting. That is what leadership is. It’s not about you. It’s about the people that are around you. And if you can uplift those people and make them better, the best versions of themselves, then you’ve done your job. And by doing that, guess what? You’re making yourself the best version of yourself as well.
Brad Burrow (39:58):
Do you think that was a God-given gift that he just had? No, he learned it.
Merrill Eisenhower (40:03):
I think he saw what was bad, and he figured out a better way.
Brad Burrow (40:10):
Yeah, problem solving,
Merrill Eisenhower (40:12):
That’s what he did. He was a problem solver.
Brad Burrow (40:14):
That’s probably why he was a great general.
Merrill Eisenhower (40:17):
I think his biggest thing that he did was his ability to strategically think about things that you couldn’t say. So prophetic almost in some military, industrial, complex, civil rights, the highway system, et cetera, et cetera. These are all things that happen under his administration when he had the ability to do it. Nasa, FAA. So all these things that we deal with today, all those things, those all happen under the Eisenhower administration.
Brad Burrow (40:44):
Yeah, foundational.
Merrill Eisenhower (40:46):
Foundational. We just need to continue to grow on ’em in a positive way.
Brad Burrow (40:49):
Yeah. Yeah. Talk a little bit Merrill about your current, what do you do now? Sure. Is it BR company?
Merrill Eisenhower (40:57):
Yeah. Building resources.
Brad Burrow (40:58):
Okay.
Merrill Eisenhower (40:59):
Yeah. So I’m the chief strategy Officer for building resources, and we’re a construction real estate development company. We do energy projects as well. Actually energy.
Brad Burrow (41:11):
Huge need for that, right? Huge deal.
Merrill Eisenhower (41:13):
But mainly we do kind of efficiencies, energy efficiency stuff. So the same building that you have here, we would look at it, show you where you can save money by updating modern technology, et cetera, et cetera. Not saying that you aren’t, I’m just
Brad Burrow (41:26):
Saying, well, this is 1972.
Merrill Eisenhower (41:28):
There you go. So there’s things that you can improve. But some of our stuff that we have going on, we’re building a high rise in downtown Kansas City right now. We have stuff going on in Arizona where we’re building a medical facility, new hospital wings, et cetera, et cetera. So it’s a small but large company at the same time.
Brad Burrow (41:46):
And what is your role?
Merrill Eisenhower (41:48):
So I connect the dots. So I put things together. I help bring people together. I help with the overall strategy of the company, global strategy, if you will. And that’s kind of what I do.
Brad Burrow (42:00):
So that leads me to another question. When you talk about strategy, I mean, everything about the way we do things is changing
Merrill Eisenhower (42:09):
Right
Brad Burrow (42:09):
Now. It is. And I think of it in our little bitty small world, even the way that I would sell completely different than the way I did it 15 years, 10 years ago,
Merrill Eisenhower (42:18):
Five years ago.
Brad Burrow (42:20):
So how has that impacted your business and how you’re doing things differently?
Merrill Eisenhower (42:25):
So let’s think about it a different way. Let’s stop. In our business, we bid. We don’t sell necessarily, right? Or we do sell the savings.
Brad Burrow (42:32):
So BID comes out, and
Merrill Eisenhower (42:34):
So we bid it. So think about it in this way with the current model that’s going on and the amount of information that comes out. So I always say that the amount of knowledge in the world doubles every day. Like content doubles every day. Every single day. It doubles. So what? Right now, if there was one tomorrow’s two, the next day’s, four next day’s, eight, et cetera, what AI does is AI driven solutions allow for you to go through all of that and allows for them to sweep through and comb that information and allows you to build a better business. And so I’m not saying that you have to do everything with ai. There are things that AI cannot do. Understand people right now that may
Brad Burrow (43:23):
Change. Yeah,
Merrill Eisenhower (43:25):
Exactly. That may change. But as of right now, as a historian and as a strict data point situation, I can type in a problem that I have. Say, these are what I think the solutions are. Refine these, change them, add to it. Tell me based on empirical data, what is correct, what is not correct. And then it spits out information, and then you have to read that information and interpret it. So when you’re talking about this in another way, I read an article maybe six months ago that says, lawyers will no longer be needed.
(44:00):
Well, why is that? Well, because everything that’s in the law book is already an ai. So you say, I’m being charged with this. It says, here’s your defense. Do I think you’re going to need lawyers? Yeah. Again, human factor. You need to have that. Doctor walks in, has medical AI on his tablet, he puts in the symptoms, she puts in the symptoms and says all these things. Well, I’ve already checked that. That’s not it. That’s not it. Oh, this weird disease that I’ve heard of. Let me read about, oh, that’s it. So it’s going to save lives. It’s going to change the way we do business. It’s going to change the way bids are done.
Brad Burrow (44:39):
Yes.
Merrill Eisenhower (44:39):
It’s going to be changing the way that sales are done.
Brad Burrow (44:44):
That’s already happening,
Merrill Eisenhower (44:45):
By the way. Absolutely. I was helping out a nonprofit the other day. I had a meeting with ’em, and they were like, well, do you know? I was like, why aren’t you guys looking at the community foundations all throughout the country or all throughout the state? And they’re like, well, what do you mean? I was like, every community foundation has millions of dollars for the most part. Not all of ’em, but a lot of ’em do. I’m like, oh, okay. Well, we’ll start looking that up. I was like, well, hold on. And then it lists all of it out, how much money they have. And I said, what’s the main contact for each one of these? Add and added all the main contacts saved a month worth of work. It took 15 seconds.
Brad Burrow (45:22):
Yeah. Isn’t that crazy?
Merrill Eisenhower (45:23):
That’s what we’re talking about.
Brad Burrow (45:24):
What’s interesting to me about just on the chat, GPT side and all that stuff, it’s all about the prompt that you put in. If you know how to be really, really descriptive and creative and put the right prompts in there, you can get really good results. Absolutely. But if you don’t, you’re going to get stuff that’s,
Merrill Eisenhower (45:44):
It’s just garbage and garbage out, right? Yeah, exactly. And your CRM. So when you start talking about those types of things too, I mean, nothing will beat a face-to-face person right now, but you can have that face-to-face person more prepared today than ever to go on a sales call, to have a sales conversation, to have a meeting because of the technology that’s available today, and it’s just going to
Brad Burrow (46:07):
Improve.
Merrill Eisenhower (46:08):
So I’m excited to see what happens.
Brad Burrow (46:10):
Some people are pretty scared about ai, like whistleblower type people. Not, whistleblower is not the right word, but I actually saw a guy on television today very, very concerned that ai, the guy from Meta is building a super AI thing now. Have you heard about that?
Merrill Eisenhower (46:29):
Sure.
Brad Burrow (46:29):
And so it’s going to be smarter than humans is what they’re saying.
Merrill Eisenhower (46:33):
They already are.
Brad Burrow (46:34):
Yeah.
Merrill Eisenhower (46:34):
I mean, as much knowledge as I think I have nothing compared to the internet.
Brad Burrow (46:40):
Well, that’s right. Yeah.
Merrill Eisenhower (46:41):
So we’re saying that it’s going to be smarter than humans. All we’re doing is we’re taking a complicated search engine and generating results. That’s all we’re doing. We’re not having long and depth conversations with ai. So that’s what we’re talking
Brad Burrow (46:58):
About. The media kind of wants to take that and turn it into the Terminator. Oh, sky, they’re taking over the world.
Merrill Eisenhower (47:07):
I’m pretty sure we are past 1997, so we’re probably
Brad Burrow (47:10):
Okay.
Merrill Eisenhower (47:11):
But do I think that that could happen? Sure. Anything could happen. Is it possible? Yes, it is possible. My question is how do you let it happen? And are there restrictions and stuff in there to make sure it doesn’t
Brad Burrow (47:25):
Got to have some guardrails? I would think. I was thinking too, in the construction business, man, you should maybe be thinking about building server facilities, because that’s what I’m hearing about AI is it takes so much computing power that the Facebook guys are building their own
Merrill Eisenhower (47:45):
All over
Brad Burrow (47:45):
Facilities.
Merrill Eisenhower (47:46):
The problem is that there’s another part of it that nobody’s talking about, and that’s the power grid. So the power grid itself is dated over a hundred years, and if it would take us a couple trillion dollars to fix the power grid the way that it needs to be fixed in order for it to run, did you know that the most effective way to generate power is nuclear? And we haven’t built a nuclear power plant in this country since 1974.
Brad Burrow (48:14):
Why do you suppose that is?
Merrill Eisenhower (48:16):
Regulations. They’re afraid of hazardous material. Renova happened, so things stopped. But with, we can put nuclear power plants on an aircraft carrier and a submarine, but we can’t put one down the road. It’s also the cleanest version of energy right now too. So when we talk about the power that’s needed, we talk about the grids, there’s going to have to be a relaxing of regulations at the federal level, or an adjustment in order to put into consideration these
Brad Burrow (48:46):
Things. Technologies had to have come far enough that it can be a lot safer.
Merrill Eisenhower (48:50):
Absolutely. I
Brad Burrow (48:51):
Mean,
Merrill Eisenhower (48:52):
Well see, the thing goes with ai, you still have to adjust your prompts, just like you said. So you have to make sure, oh, that’s not quite what I was looking for. Let me redefine that. Redefine blah, blah, blah, blah, redefining. This is what I meant. You still have to be smart enough to figure that out. And so as technology has moved on, you still have to figure those things out.
Brad Burrow (49:10):
It’s interesting. I get asked this all the time about our business film production, and are you guys using ai? And we use it all the time for different types of things. But one of the things that’s really cool, we’re doing this basketball documentary, well, it’s all 1972, back to the 18 hundreds, late 18 hundreds. So the pictures that we have are very, very low res. Well, we use an AI program now to operate all those pictures, and it’s incredible. Absolutely. And we’ve seen it. So we’ve been working on it for four years, and we’ve seen the capability of the AI to actually, we’ve watched it get better, and every month it gets better and better and better at it. So sometimes we’ll go back and redo the same picture and get a completely different, better result now. That’s
Merrill Eisenhower (49:59):
Right. That’s right. And 10 months from now and 10 years from now, it’s going to be even more crazy how it’s going to be. And I’m excited about that. I think that the world needs that. I think that I’m hoping that at some point in time, we just come together and realize that we’re humanity and we start working together in a productive way to get us ready for space exploration. I would love to see it. It would be an incredible thing to do. And my great grandfather started nasa. That’s the next logical step, is to go other planets.
Brad Burrow (50:32):
Yeah. I love what Elon Musk is doing with the space exploration. I dunno what it is about that guy. He’s got this ability to drive organizations to do things like that. But seeing a rocket land itself is just unbelievable to me.
Merrill Eisenhower (50:52):
It’s incredible. And what he’s done on the private sector is absolutely remarkable. When NASA was formed in 1956, excuse me, 1958, the idea of it was to actually take rocketry out of the hands of people because the average person shouldn’t be. They make movies about the astronaut farmer and stuff like that. So the average person should not be building rocket ships and trying to find a space. Elon’s not average.
Brad Burrow (51:22):
No.
Merrill Eisenhower (51:22):
He’s not average old. He’s an exceptional human being. I’m glad he is on our side.
Brad Burrow (51:28):
Yeah. Yeah, me too. Yeah, it’s really cool seeing what’s happening with the SpaceX and all of those things. I think that he’s vilified a lot right now, but man, someday people are going to realize how much he helped.
Merrill Eisenhower (51:43):
He is going to be in the history books, like people like Von Braun Einstein for his ability to think through these things. The thing that I like most about him is that he was willing to, regardless of what the outcome is, he was willing to stop and go and help and try to help the government. And that’s a very, very, very terrible position to put yourself in. That was selfless of him. And I have a lot of respect for
Brad Burrow (52:10):
Him. He had to know that too. Don’t you think?
Merrill Eisenhower (52:12):
Absolutely. He’s smart enough to know what was going to happen.
Brad Burrow (52:14):
Yeah.
Merrill Eisenhower (52:14):
He’s going to turn into the villain,
Brad Burrow (52:16):
And boy, they have really tried to make him into the villain.
Merrill Eisenhower (52:20):
People have short memories of goldfish a lot of times. Not all the time, but sometimes.
Brad Burrow (52:25):
Yeah. Well, I really appreciate you coming on.
Merrill Eisenhower (52:29):
Oh, absolutely.
Brad Burrow (52:30):
Gosh, I think we could go for a couple more hours. I’m
Merrill Eisenhower (52:32):
Happy. I got
Brad Burrow (52:33):
Nothing else to do. Let’s do kidding. No, this is really cool. To me, just learning the history and talking about the Auschwitz and everything that happened over there, to me, this is the kind of thing that I think that us as a company and real media, we can help get some of those messages out there.
Merrill Eisenhower (52:56):
Absolutely agreed. And I appreciate what you guys do, but let me leave you on this one thought when in leadership as people, you have a choice every day. And when you talk to people and you deal with people, I think it’s important to realize that you don’t know what those people are dealing with and what they’ve dealt with. So for example, their kid could have been expelled from school, or they could be losing their car, or they’ve had the greatest day of their life. You have no idea. You can’t control how their day is going. But what you can do is control your day and stay positive and make sure you’re trying to say hi and be polite to people. If everybody that listens to this tries that and does that,
Brad Burrow (53:45):
We’ve accomplished something,
Merrill Eisenhower (53:46):
One thing. But it makes the world a better place, too. So every day I try to wake up and try to help people try to do a good thing for somebody. A lot of times it’s just my kids as far as I can get sometimes. But you try to do the right thing. But that, I think that’s important to understand because if we make that a habit, the world becomes a better place very quickly.
Brad Burrow (54:06):
Yeah. Yeah. That’s awesome. If somebody was going to support the event March of the Living, is there any place you could tell ’em to go?
Merrill Eisenhower (54:16):
Yeah, just the website, March of living.dot org is available. And then of course, the Eisenhower Foundation that is, so it’s kind of interesting. Do I got just another minute here?
Brad Burrow (54:26):
Yeah. Heck
Merrill Eisenhower (54:27):
Yeah. The Eisenhower Foundation is kind of interesting because it was never designed to be a presidential foundation, so there was no such thing as a presidential act. The Library Act, there was, Nora wasn’t a thing for presidential libraries, and it was the first one. Now it’s given Right, right. Automatically. Yeah. So it became the first one. But before that, the Eisenhower Foundation was in charge of the World War II Museum in Abilene, Kansas. That turned into the presidential library that ended up building up the National Archives, et cetera, et cetera.
Brad Burrow (54:58):
Okay.
Merrill Eisenhower (54:58):
And so that’s not like a traditional foundation like the George W. Bush Foundations has hundreds of millions of dollars in their coffers. Nixon Foundation has 35, 40 million in their foundation. Eisenhower Foundation doesn’t have that because it was never required in order to start it. And now it’s So just something to keep in mind as
Brad Burrow (55:20):
So people could support it though, right?
Merrill Eisenhower (55:21):
Absolutely. Absolutely. In Kansas, if people are listening from Kansas, you can actually buy a tag that says, I like Ike, his old campaign logo. And it’s all automatic. $50 a year for registration Extra. That logo right there. Yeah. Yeah.
Brad Burrow (55:39):
Awesome.
Merrill Eisenhower (55:39):
So there’s just something simple doesn’t cost you a lot, and it’s very supportive.
Brad Burrow (55:44):
Can you talk about what the Eisenhower Foundation does? What are some of the things they do?
Merrill Eisenhower (55:49):
So the number one thing they do is they preserve the library itself. So the library, the National archives takes care of the national archive stuff, but any museum changes, any type of project, long-term projects that happen, they have to pay for it, so they have to raise money, pay for it, et cetera. They also do, for thousands of kids, tens of thousands of kids a year, they do Ike education where they do things like reenact D-Day, ephesian, is that right? With kids in grade school. So they actually learn about what happened, and they do all sorts of things with that. Right now, they’re on a capital campaign to put in an educational system right off the library grounds. That’s part of what they’re doing right now. So obviously, please feel free, if not, no big deal. It is what it is, but I have to always put a plug in for them whenever I
Brad Burrow (56:40):
Can. No doubt. Yeah. That’s really cool.
Merrill Eisenhower (56:42):
Absolutely.
Brad Burrow (56:43):
Do kids come from all over the state or all
Merrill Eisenhower (56:45):
Over the state? All over the country,
Brad Burrow (56:46):
Yeah. Make a trip to Abilene. Huh?
Merrill Eisenhower (56:49):
Abilene, Kansas. Actually, the number one tour spot in the country, or excuse me, in the state is Abilene, Kansas.
Brad Burrow (56:55):
Is that right?
Merrill Eisenhower (56:55):
I did not know that. Of all things.
Brad Burrow (56:57):
Yeah. Yeah. Very cool. Just a little quick side
Merrill Eisenhower (57:01):
Note. Sure, sure, sure. Yeah,
Brad Burrow (57:03):
So I was doing work for a demolition derby,
Merrill Eisenhower (57:05):
Nice
Brad Burrow (57:06):
Project, and there’s a guy in Abilene, I don’t know if you know who he is, I can’t remember his name, but he’s the most, he’s won the most demolition derbies in history,
Merrill Eisenhower (57:15):
I think. That’s awesome. That’s really cool. A that’s really cool. Well, we’re known for two things now,
Brad Burrow (57:22):
And it’s right by the railroad tracks, by the way.
Merrill Eisenhower (57:23):
Yep. Long time. Be
Brad Burrow (57:24):
Careful. Be careful. So pretty cool. Well, I thank you for joining me. This is awesome. We should do it again.
Merrill Eisenhower (57:30):
Absolutely. Anytime.
Brad Burrow (57:31):
I’ll have to dig in deep and get some more questions for you.
Merrill Eisenhower (57:35):
And if you want to talk to politics and current events, I’m happy to do that too. Anytime.
Brad Burrow (57:39):
Okay. Well, thank you for joining us, everybody. This is the, in a world with Real Media, usually I have everybody, I don’t know if you do a movie voice, but usually I have everybody do the movie voice. I do
Merrill Eisenhower (57:48):
Not have a movie voice.
Brad Burrow (57:50):
I’m sorry, it, you might have a new career as a voiceover guy after that.
Merrill Eisenhower (57:54):
I don’t think so. I’m
Brad Burrow (57:54):
Dyslexic. Remember. Yeah. But thanks for joining us in a world of Real Media. Subscribe. Share this content, get it out there. This is great stuff, and really appreciate everybody watching, and we’ll see you next time. This has Been In a World With Real Media. Thanks for joining us, and be sure to subscribe on iTunes and follow real media on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. So you never miss an episode.