National conferences such as this are so important for our field because they afford us the opportunity to explore new ideas and challenge old ones, reconnect with old friends, and establish new relationships and to learn from those who have preceded us in the field. They provide hope for the future as we meet the next generation of public administration leaders and scholars.

As all of you know, it is a special honor for any ASPA member to receive an invitation to deliver the Donald C. Stone lecture. This privilege is especially meaningful to me because of the personal relationship I was fortunate to have with him. Each of us in this room can identify a small number of faculty members who have greatly influenced our intellectual development, values, perspectives, and commitment to public service.

When I was a graduate student at the University of Southern California, Chet Newland was a force in my life, as was Don Stone at the University of Pittsburgh. My first memory of Dean Stone dates back to the fall of 1967, when I entered the doctoral program in the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs (GSPIA) at the University of Pittsburgh.

All new students in the School were invited to his home. It was called “Stone’s Throw.” The house was isolated among trees on the hill above the “Cathedral of Learning.” You could see for miles in every direction. Many of us thought that such a setting was particularly appropriate for an academic leader with the comprehensive vision he possessed.

At “Stone’s Throw,” Don and Alice welcomed groups of students from throughout the world and across America as if we were part of their family. It was clear they cared very deeply about their students. As a Hoosier, I am very proud to note that this dynamic team first met in Bloomington at Indiana University in 1925.

There was no question of the Stone commitment to GSPIA and to the importance of public service. He was truly a leader who personified the best of our profession: the selflessness, the high intellect, the strong appreciation for and commitment to the public good. In a sense, he was a modern Renaissance person. He had an incredibly wide-ranging career that included city management, directorship of the Public Administration Service, a college presidency and deanship, leadership positions in the Bureau of the Budget, the Marshall Plan, and the Mutual Security Agency. He was a consummate public servant.

It was consistently clear that he possessed a profound understanding of the dynamics of organizations, the evolving environment of public enterprises, and the impact of those environmental changes on both public policy and day-to-day enterprise operations. He was then able to apply that knowledge and understanding to multiple functional areas and levels of government.

But at the foundation of all his work was a very strong set of core values. As founding dean of GSPIA, he stressed the importance of responsive, effective government, as well as the obligation to provide effective leadership and stewardship in all our public service activities. He once said that the underlying concept of GSPIA was to be an intercultural center in which persons of all sexes, religions, and nationalities would be educated to have an integrated approach to world problems. He also emphasized that the job of every faculty member was to break down barriers of discrimination(1).

I continue to be inspired by Don Stone’s vision, the breadth of his interests, his extensive administrative experience, the depth of his analyses of management practices, and the many observations and points of advice he shared with students about the dynamics of public enterprises. Among the many such observations he shared with us were these five that got my attention. I have never forgotten them:

1. 1. Before accepting an appointment to a new post, be sure you follow a “stinker.”
   
2. To assure success, select people more competent than you are and give them any resultant credit.
   
3. If a highly centralized organization isn’t working well, the solution is to decentralize it. If it is already decentralized, then the remedy is centralization.
   
4. The success of a meeting depends on the comfort and arrangement of chairs.
   
5. If you wish to live long and joyfully, never retire(2).

In short, Don Stone taught the fundamentals of effective decisionmaking and administration. He insisted that we be trained to deal simultaneously with both detail and the abstract. He helped us understand that vision without strategy or strategies without vision are generally ineffectual. Finally, he stressed that public service must truly be for the public good. The opportunity to prepare for a public service career in an educational environment with such strong and principled academic leaders has had a great impact on my life. I am sure that each of you could make a similar observation based on your own experiences. | next |notes |