General Eisenhower Creates A Sensation - Visits Vidich at YMCA Camp Manitowish

General Dwight Eisenhower with Arthur Vidich in the background (left side)'

Arthur Vidich spent some of his summer months teaching young boys about the skill needed to live and survive in the great outdoors.  Camp Manitowish, is a YMCA camp in Boulder Junction, Wisconsin at which Art worked as a camp counselor teaching tennis, canoeing, sailing and other outdoor activities. This photo was taken July 21, 1946 when General Eisenhower was visiting Wisconsin,. This YMCA camp was an incubator for political talent with Melvin Laird, later to become a U.S. Congressman and Secretary of the Armed Forces in Richard Nixon's administration, also serving as a fellow counselor. As Art said in his autobiography, "The YMCA stood for the idea of social uplift and equality, and I was a ready-made recipient for it."(With a Critical Eye, p. 107).  Art, made no mention of his work at Camp Manitowish after World War II, but research completed by his son found he worked at the Camp when General Eisenhower visited it that summer (see proof in the photo below).