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JOHN GARDNER MEMORIAL
NY Public Library
April 17, 2002
Franklin A. Thomas
In
so many important ways, John Gardner was an inspiration to me. The
Public man who was at home in all settings - government, business,
and philanthropy; A man whose work and values were widely admired
and who was guided by an unshakable belief in the infinite possibilities
of life; A serious student, who never stopped seeking knowledge
and understanding; A dedicated and accomplished athlete whose perseverance
was legendary.
John devoted his life to helping people across our nation tackle
problems that limited their life chances and choices. And to helping
institutions become places that nurtured and encouraged leadership
and self-renewal.
Long before he was to have the title of Secretary of Health Education
and Welfare, John was deeply engaged with those same issues with
a level of passion, creativity and optimism, that inspired all who
read his books or knew of his work.
My early contacts with John centered around the crises of our cities
in the mid to late 1960s. At that time, arson, violence, rioting
and chaos were happening in scores of cities across the country
as neighborhoods virtually imploded and many people lost faith in
government’s and even the people’s ability to get our
country on course toward a healthy future.
Many meetings were called to discuss a variety of initiatives to
address our crises. Among them, was a fresh new approach to the
underlying issues of poverty, underdevelopment and alienation in
the inner cities/ and the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn
was to be one of its focal points. The idea was the brainchild of
the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy. Simply put, it was to combine the
talents and energy of the residents of the inner cities with the
experience and resources of the business community in a new and
equal partnership aimed at the total revitalization of the community
- Jobs, housing, education, new business investment, health care,
arts and recreation.
Government and philanthropy were asked to help but the leadership
and primary responsibility were to rest with the new partners. It
was the birth of what was to become the community development movement
in the United States. And today there are more than 3000 similar
partnerships across the country and millions of Americans have felt
their positive impact.
John knew that such broad national goals would ultimately depend
on effective local leadership for their success and thus encouraged
this new initiative. I would spend the next 10 years of my life,
leading the Bedford Stuyvesant effort, the percursor to what would
become John’s National Urban Coalition work and his lifelong
emphasis on nurturing and supporting leadership in all sectors of
civic life.
More than 20 years later while I was at the Ford Foundation I had
conversations with John about his desire to travel the country and
memorialize the many extraordinary examples of outstanding local
leadership in urban and rural communities. His purpose was to extract
core leadership principles to guide us in the future. In the final
paper of the 12 paper series, which John wrote in the Leadership
Studies Program of the Independent Sector, he observes:
“One often hears the confident assertion that leaders are born,
not made. I take the same view of the assertion that Dr. Samuel
Johnson took of cucumbers, which he said should be carefully sliced,
well seasoned with peppers and vinegar, and then thrown out.”
John goes on: “No doubt some of the personal attributes that
enhance the possibility of leadership are inborn, but most of what
goes into leadership is learned. Given the mysteries of human development,
the role of luck and the many paths to failure, we shall never succeed
in devising a program of training that will with certainty, turn
a promising youngster into a leader. But we can produce a substantial
cadre of young potential leaders from which the next generation
of leaders will emerge.”
And
John concludes: “Our thinking about leadership development
for the nation must be very broadly based and will necessarily involve
very large numbers. That is not what people have in mind when they
say we need more and better leaders. But given the dispersed leadership
so essential to the vitality of our society, we have no choice.”
Today’s well deserved tributes to John barely scratch the surface
of the profound and positive impact his extraordinary life has had
on the health and welfare of our society. And I feel privileged
to have known him!
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