Page 209 - Leadership Lessons of the White House Fellows

THE LESSONS

UN, where she served as the director of the UN’s Bureau for Crisis Pre-
vention and Recovery, among other things, and formulated and coordinated
the plans for the recovery of Afghanistan in 2002.
A close friend of the Dalai Lama and several chairmen of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff, Taft was the recipient of awards and accolades from around
the world. As White House Fellow classmate Tom O’Brien (WHF 70–71)
noted, “In all this, part of Julia’s magic was in keeping the focus on solving
the problem and getting the job done. Full of marvelous and often hair-
raising anecdotes, the point was never about her or what she had done but
about the humor she saw in her own experience, the adventure and challenge
of doing the right thing, and the enjoyment she found in participating in the
truly important events of our time. Julia wanted to share that with everyone
she cared about, and she cared about pretty much everyone.”
In 2005, Taft learned that she had colon cancer. Determined to beat
the disease, she kept up her work and concern for the world’s downtrodden
and forgotten, even returning to serve as an interim CEO for InterAction.
In March 2008, even as she was in the last days of her heroic struggle to
beat the cancer, Taft expressed her concerns about others to longtime friend
Ken Bacon, who said, “She didn’t want to talk about her cancer, although
we did a little. She didn’t want to talk about her wonderful family and
friends, although we did talk about them a little. She wanted to talk about
the plight of Iraqi refugees. Specifically, she wanted to discuss the lessons
she had learned over the last thirty-three years that could help Iraqi
refugees today. She knew that Refugees International and the International
Rescue Committee would continue our efforts, but that wasn’t enough. She
wanted reassurance that we would coordinate with other agencies to bring
more pressure on the White House and Congress to protect displaced
Iraqis.”
Interviewed by the New York Times just days after Taft’s death, Former
White House Fellow and longtime Taft friend Colin Powell was quoted in
that newspaper’s obituary section on March 18, 2008, as saying that Julia
Taft, “was an image of American openness and generosity. Her professional
life was committed to people trying to get by on a dollar a day, those who
are hungry, without clean water, without medicine, without homes.” Taft’s
obituary in the Washington Post on March 19 stated, “It was her ability to
bring order to chaos—plus her willingness to get on a plane, helicopter, jeep
or riverboat to go almost anywhere that enabled her to make a difference.

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