A Murray State University alumnus is returning to campus this week to share his experience working with a former Kentucky congressman and to talk about his career in public service.
Michael Pape, a Murray State graduate who served for over two decades as field director for former Kentucky Congressman Ed Whitfield and currently serves as chief of staff for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s rural utility service, is the featured speaker at this year’s Harry Lee Waterfield Distinguished Lecture in Public Affairs taking place Tuesday evening. The annual series features speakers who focus on topics of historical and political significance.
Pape said his calling to public service began in high school with a letter he wrote to then-President Ronald Reagan.
“I became a pen pal with Ronald Reagan for a little bit. I wrote Reagan when I was in high school because we were going to Washington for the first time, and I was telling him about our activist club, that we had raised money for the Ethiopian people who were going through a famine,” Pape said.
“I wanted him to meet our class, and he wasn't able to that day, but he wrote me a letter back, and he commented directly on the things I wrote him about, and he said the idea of people helping people has been one of the distinguishing marks the American experience, and one of the primary causes of our nation's greatness. And that struck with me, and it set me on a path.”
After enrolling at Murray State University, Paper helped re-charter the College Republicans chapter on campus.
After finishing his bachelor’s degree at Murray State, Pape earned a master’s degree in
American Politics and worked for a national security company before returning to Kentucky to work for the state Republican Party in 1994.
It was there he met Ed Whitfield, who at the time was running against Democrat Thomas Barlow for Kentucky’s First Congressional District seat. Whitfield, who worked for CSX railways, was originally a Democrat, but switched parties after Pape said he became frustrated by what he saw as a lack of change or consideration of new ideas by Democrats, who were in power when he went to Washington to talk to them about railroad issues affecting his career. Pape said he didn’t feel like the Democratic establishment was listening to their constituents, so Whitfield became a Republican and ran for Congress.
After Whitfield was elected to the seat, he asked Pape to come and work with him in the congressional office.
“He said, ‘do you want to work in Washington or do you want to work in Kentucky?’ And I said, ‘I want to work in the district, because if we don't do it right here [in] the next two years, you won't be back,’” Pape said.
Pape said he felt that it was a great opportunity for Whitfield and his office to step up and use the power of the office to help people in their communities.
“The first several months after he was elected, we were getting out across the district, getting to know people. People didn't recognize him when they saw him in public… So we were kind of anonymous still, but when they found out he was the congressman, they would say, ‘Congressman Whitfield. I know I'm a Democrat. I didn't vote for you, but I'm having problems with my Social Security. I hope you can help me.’ And he would always say, ‘Thank you for telling me that. It wouldn't matter how you voted, whether you voted for me or not, my job is to help everyone, and I want to help you.’ And we did that, and we did it well,” Pape said. “We did great constituent service, in my view, that's what helped him get reelected all those times.”
Pape said Whitfield’s 21 years serving the First Congressional District produced numerous examples of how public service can make a positive difference in people’s lives, including working to ensure health benefits for workers at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion plant, work on economic development, and work in Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area.
“The first thing you try to do is you try to keep people's faith in their government strong, because people, over time, have become really pessimistic about whether anybody cares right about them, and so we tried to use the congressional office let them know that we cared and that we were their voice to their government,” Pape said. And so we worked really hard on the constituent service side of things, helping people with social security claims and veterans claims and passports and just everything that they would encounter as individuals that involved the federal government.”
Pape said he was honored to be asked to deliver the Waterfield Lecture at his alma mater, and wanted to bring the message that public service is still a noble calling and that service extends far beyond the political realm.
“Public service…doesn't have to be government service. It can be, whether you are a firefighter, you're a police officer, you're a first responder, you're a school teacher, a professor at Murray State University, a doctor, a nurse. There's so many professions that you have the opportunity to benefit the public and to do something greater than just for yourself,” said Pape. “But I'm going to focus on public service as it relates primarily to government service. And I would like to talk a little bit about my experience with that journey, and I'm going to talk about some specific individuals that I've come across over the years that really inspired me, that I felt provided a great public service in their capacity.”
Pape said some of the individuals he is highlighting includes an astronaut, an army chaplain, people who worked with Pape in Whitfield’s congressional office, and some people who work with him currently at the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
“I was inspired as an 18-year-old and as a 58-year-old, I'm even more inspired,” Pape said.
Michael Pape will deliver the 2026 Harry Lee Waterfield Distinguished Lecture in Public Affairs on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. at the Curris Center Ballroom. The event is free and open to the public.
