When Richard Celeste was approaching his ninth year as president of Colorado College, he got a call from his son.
“You’re sailing into uncharted waters,” his son said. Confused, Celeste asked what he meant.
“You’ve never held a job for more than eight years, and you’re starting your ninth year at Colorado College,” his son said.
After the call, Celeste told the chairman of the board that was his last year.
Celeste, who has served as the governor of Ohio and as the U.S. ambassador to India, spent his life in public service. He held each office for just under a decade before shifting to another.
His time in those roles — as well as his experiences as a son, father and husband — are detailed in his recently released book, “In the Heart of It All.”
The 356-page book is 15 years in the making, Celeste said, from when he conceived the idea to its publication. Celeste credits Colorado College English professor Steve Hayward for pushing him to the finish line.
“We hit it off and I sort of confided in him that I was trying to write a book,” Celeste said. “He got his spurs into me and helped me focus and walk me through the process, and that was a huge help.”
While much of the memoir is sourced from Celeste’s memory, he said he learned a lot from talking to others.
“I thought I remembered things pretty accurately, and then as I looked at, for example, correspondence I realized, this wasn’t exactly the way I remembered it,” he said. “So I learned things about myself in the process.”
Celeste, who grew up during the 1940s in Lakewood, Ohio, hopes the book illustrates the sense of meaning he found in his years of public service.
“It’s not an effort to list all of my accomplishments. It’s not an effort to get even with people who are political adversaries at one point or another,” he said.
“It’s really so, hopefully, I convey the satisfaction that came from that work.”
While it was hard for him to nail down his favorite parts of the book, Celeste said he enjoyed writing about his childhood and time as governor.
Celeste grew up the eldest son of an Italian-American family, and saw the impact of public service firsthand after his father successfully ran for mayor of Lakewood.
“I enjoyed early on reflecting on my family, especially my grandmothers,” Celeste said. “The years as governor, of course, were particularly meaningful.”
The book also shares some of the personal challenges Celeste faced, including infidelity in his first marriage while he was governor. Celeste said diving into the more personal aspects of his life was difficult when putting the book together.
“As I say in the book, there was a period in my life — a substantial period of my life — when I felt I was more honest in my public life than I was in my personal life,” he said.
“I had to come to terms with that and trying to write about that in a way that was respectful of others and told the story was a challenge.”
Celeste described his time as president of Colorado College as “exciting” and “intellectually stimulating.”
“Colorado College was a wonderful experience,” Celeste said. “When you have dealt with people on death row, a flash flood, saving and loans crisis, the issue of tenure isn’t as daunting; I found it intellectually stimulating.”
His proudest work at the college was integrating it into the Colorado Springs community, he said, which he feels the college has come closer to accomplishing with the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center.
“I was very interested in the Colorado Springs community. I felt that the college needed to get closer to the community,” he said.
While the memoir is out, Celeste isn’t done. Still a resident of Colorado Springs, he serves as a trustee of the Gates Family Foundation and Global Communities, as well as a host of other charities.
Your Privacy Choices
