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SALT LAKE CITY -- When Ann Davies began dating Mitt Romney in 1965, she had no idea he would some day be a candidate for one of the biggest jobs in America. And that she would be by his side every step of the way.
Ann and Mitt have a special relationship that has gone through many joys, challenges, and experiences.
“We fell in love when we were young, very young,” recalled Mitt. “Genuinely, fundamentally, we cared for the other more than we cared for ourselves. Perhaps that was the test of true love, that the other’s happiness dwarfed our concerns about ourselves.” They informally agreed, after his senior prom in June 1965, to marry—but before they married, there was Stanford University and an LDS mission to France for Mitt.
During his absence, although her parents were against organized religion, Ann joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and began attending Brigham Young University. She and Mitt were married on March 21, 1969. After Mitt graduated from BYU, they moved to Boston, where he attended Harvard Business School and Harvard Law School. Ann finished her undergraduate work by taking night courses at Harvard Extension School.
While Mitt went on to be CEO of Bain Capital (a private investment holding company with $13 billion of capital under management) and CEO of Bain & Company, Inc. (a leading international management consulting firm with more than 2,500 employees worldwide), Ann was a stay-at-home mom raising five boys. “I had not planned to choose motherhood as a career,” she said. “The all-girls high school I had attended set high academic expectations: like my friends, I assumed I would use what I had learned to pursue a professional career.” Explaining her former goals, she said, “Not having grown up in the LDS faith, I hadn’t given much thought to becoming a mother. When our tiny son was placed in our arms, however, I took on the work of the ages.”
Of motherhood, she said, “There is so much routine in being a mother—you feed, you wash, you clean, and then you do it again and again. But between the routines were defining moments.” She concluded, “For me there could be no more fulfilling and exhilarating career.”
Believing “no service in the Church or in the community transcends that given in the home,” Ann felt that an extension of her home was standing by her husband as he pushed forward his career—first in business, then as president and CEO of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee for the 2002 Olympic Winter Games, and then in politics.
As he moved into ever-widening societal circles, so did she—serving on the Massachusetts General Hospital Women’s Cancer Advisory Board and becoming an active voice in campaigns to prevent teen pregnancy.
She also served as the liaison for the governor of Massachusetts to the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives; helped develop Faith in Action, a program of the United Way of America; and served as a board member for the United Way of America. She was also involved in a number of children’s charities, including director of the inner-city-oriented Best Friends. For her philanthropic work with children, she was awarded the 2006 Lifetime Achievement Award from Salt Lake City-based Operation Kids.
You learn the most from tough lessons in life, and MS has been my toughest teacher.
–Ann Romney
When Ann was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) in 1998, some wondered if she would retreat from the public arena. “As [she and Mitt] cried together, holding each other, in the doctor’s office, we acknowledged that any problem would be okay as long as we could be together and not be separated by death.”
She said, concluding, “You learn the most from tough lessons in life, and MS has been my toughest teacher. It has taught me a lot. It has taught me how to appreciate the good days. It’s taught me how to pace myself better. Most importantly, it’s taught me to recognize that nobody gets through life unscathed. Everyone is dealing with their own MS in one way or another.”
Although MS is a difficult challenge, Ann determined to stay in the public sector. She became a board member for the New England chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society and was awarded the MS Society’s Annual Hope Award.
After serving as the first lady of Massachusetts from 2003 to 2007 during her husband’s gubenatorial service, she crossed the nation giving numerous speeches to forward the 2008 presidential bid of her husband. When asked, “What prepared you for the intensity of it all?” she replied, “Giving church talks. I’ve been Relief Society president, stake Young Women president. I’ve learned to run things and plan events and speak on a moment’s notice.”
She says it is hard for her to take her “Olympic-sized businessman” anywhere these days, and she often leaves Mitt in the car while she runs in to the grocery store. She laughs, “It’s either that or have him put a paper bag on his head so that it doesn’t take so long to go anywhere.”
*Taken from the book, Women of Character, by Susan Easton Black and Mary Jane Woodger, available at Seagull Book and Deseret Book.
