Pharis Harvey Stower, Junior. was a Wisconsin politician and legislator.
Education
Born in Frederic, Wisconsin, Stower and his family moved to Amery, Wisconsin, where he attended high school. Stower graduated from the University of Wisconsin–River Falls in 1966 with degrees in political science, English, and education. After teaching English at Prescott, Clayton, and Nicolet High Schools, Stower attended Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, District of Columbia, to pursue his dream of becoming an ordained United Methodist minister.
Career
Early Life, Education, and While attending UW-River Falls, Stower was active in United Methodist youth, campus politics, and social justice issues across the United States, including participating in the 1965 Selma to Montgomery march with Martin Luther King, Junior., beginning a life−long commitment to working for civil rights. From 1983 to 1984 and 1989 to 1994, he served in the Wisconsin State Assembly, representing the 28th Assembly District as a Democrat. During that time, he served as Company-Chair of the Forest Productivity and Rural Development Committee, the bipartisan Rural Caucus, and Chair of the Assembly Tourism and Recreation Committee.
In 1994, he ran unsuccessfully for the United States. House District 3 seat.
He liked to talk about other things: community values, taking care of kids, what democracy needs to work. "Ours has become a microwave democracy," he said in 1995.
"Our culture expects everything to be done to our satisfaction immediately. We want everything - food, entertainment, news, politics - done fast, no waiting.
The national metabolism"s been cranked up."
"Democracy doesn"t work that way," Stower said.
"Our cultural sense of immediate gratification doesn"t fit with our political process. We need to understand that. Holy buckets, we need to put the brakes on."
From 1996 until his death, Stower was mayor of Amery.
His visionary leadership focused on developing the riverfront in Amery, downtown revitalization, economic growth, creating a thriving arts center, and improving the city’s infrastructure through improved facilities for the airport, hospital, library, and food pantry.
Views
Quotations:
"I"m glad my mother never told me not to talk about religion or politics, because I do "em both,". "Ours has become a microwave democracy,". "Democracy doesn"t work that way,".