Page 30 - Leadership Lessons of the White House Fellows

A FOUNDATION FOR FELLOWSHIP

Telegraph offices a home away from home. He gratefully accepted Anderson’s
offer and kept up his end of the bargain by earning his bachelor’s degree
in journalism while maintaining his commitment to the paper. While other
boys his age were out cruising on Friday and Saturday nights, Johnson was
hard at work in the newsroom, cheerfully repaying his debt to his mentor.
Anderson had so much faith in Johnson that he also paid the young man’s
tuition to Harvard Business School.

It was at the end of his graduate studies at Harvard in 1964 that Johnson
applied for the inaugural class of the White House Fellows program. He
was selected, and although he felt obligated to return to Macon to work for
the paper, Anderson told him not to give it a second thought: How could
he turn down a chance to work at the White House for a year? Johnson and
his new wife, Edwina, moved to Washington for what they thought would
be an interesting twelve months in the nation’s capital. Since he was a jour-
nalist, Johnson was assigned to work in the White House Press Office with
Press Secretary Bill Moyers. “The president felt that the Fellows should have
the opportunity not just to be observers during their year but to be partic-
ipants in the process. I’ll never forget my first meeting with him on my very
first day on the Fellowship,” Johnson recalled. “Bill Moyers took me in to
meet the president, and Lyndon Johnson said to me, ‘Tom, we are going to
treat you just like a full-time member of our staff.’ And he did.”
Tom and Edwina became close friends with President Johnson and
Lady Bird, and it became clear to them that the president and the first lady
were deeply committed to the Fellowship program. “President Johnson said
the Fellows and their wives reminded him of a young Lady Bird and
Lyndon Johnson coming to Washington as New Dealers—idealistic, want-
ing to make a difference, needing mentors, needing friends, and perhaps
even feeling alone. Mrs. Johnson spoke to me about this too. She embraced
the Fellows and their wives. She made all the spouses feel welcome.” The
president became so attached to Johnson that at the end of his Fellowship
year, LBJ asked him to stay and serve as assistant press secretary. Again,
Johnson was torn between a new opportunity and his obligation to return
to Macon and work for Anderson at the Telegraph.
It was then that the president intervened and wrote a letter to Anderson
asking if he might release Tom Johnson from that obligation, because with-
out Anderson’s blessing the young man would not stay in Washington. The

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