LINCOLN — It was 1979, and a college freshman was searching the State Capitol for lobbyist Walt Radcliffe, who was scheduled to speak to young leaders from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Eventually, the freshman, Scott Moore, caught up with Radcliffe, who posed a profane question to the student that was something like, “What the heck am I supposed to say to these kids?” “I knew right then that this was someone I was going to like,” said Moore, who went on to become a state senator, Nebraska Secretary of State and later, a top executive at Union Pacific.

Stories like that, and many more, circulated across the state as word spread about the death of Radcliffe, 77, on Thursday afternoon.

A Lincoln native whose work spanned 10 governors, Radcliffe was the undisputed dean of the statehouse lobbying corps. He had his own padded bench in the Capitol Rotunda. His firm, Radcliffe Gilbertson & Brady, annually ranked among the state’s top in annual revenue. He also served as a valuable — and engaging — font of institutional knowledge about the Legislature for lawmakers and governors as such knowledge was disappearing due to term limits.

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