Faith, Family, Tragedy Shaped Young Romney

A Mormon in the '60s, his was a world of privilege, not comfort
By Jonas Oransky,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 25, 2007 8:56 PM CDT
Faith, Family, Tragedy Shaped Young Romney
Republican presidential hopeful, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, smiles during an interview with The Associated Press in Washington, Thursday, June 7, 2007.   (Associated Press)

Mitt Romney, once liberal Massachusetts governor and now conservative presidential candidate, grew up in a family of privilege. But it was a family always conscious that mainstream acceptance of the Mormon faith was fragile. The leave-it-to-beaver Romney was confused by sixties strife he saw at Stanford, the Boston Globe reports, before he transferred to Brigham Young.

Romney developed a thick skin as a Mormon missionary in France, where he redoubled his efforts after a fatal car crash, in a car he was driving, killed a colleague. And as the son of Michigan’s governor he witnessed the struggles his moderate Republican father faced as a civil rights supporter in the age of Goldwater. The elder Romney couldn’t stick to one position on Vietnam, to the detriment of his own presidential hopes. (More Mitt Romney stories.)

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