Page 43 - Leadership Lessons of the White House Fellows

THE PROGRAM

Fellows program and created an exciting opportunity for young people in
Florida who want to develop leadership skills and real job experience that
will carry through to future employment and life situations,” former Gov-
ernor Bush said. Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann (WHF 83–84) has
established a similar program in Hawaii. Richard Greco (WHF 02–03) was
sent to Afghanistan by former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to
assist in setting up a comparable program there. And Burn Loeffke (WHF
70–71) has been advising the Chinese government on setting up a Great
Wall Fellows Program that is modeled on the White House Fellows.

AN ISSUE OF PATERNITY
During a speech at the White House Fellows’ Fortieth Anniversary Cele-
bration in October 2005, Colin Powell said, “John Gardner was the spirit
of the White House Fellows program, but not just the initiating spirit—
he stayed with it for all those years. He put his heart and his soul and his
love and his energy into this program until he was no longer with us . . .
this is John Gardner’s program and it always will be.”
Although Gardner has been widely credited for creating the White
House Fellows program, in the early days some members of President
Johnson’s staff were uncomfortable with that and felt that the president
should receive recognition too. After all, it was a team effort if there ever
was one, and a bipartisan team effort to boot.
Bill Moyers understood that. When delivering John Gardner’s eulogy
at his memorial service on April 17, 2002, Moyers had this to say: “They
were the right two at the right time. Johnson—impetuous, imperious,
impatient; Gardner—reflective, righteous, resolute. Both were radical mid-
dle-of-the-roaders who believed in widening the road into a broad boule-
vard of opportunity so more people could travel it. One memorable
summer evening, we sat on the south lawn of the White House—the six
of us: LBJ and Lady Bird, John and Aida Gardner, Judith and me, both of
us barely thirty. I just listened that evening, listened to one man who under-
stood power and politics and another who understood the process and pro-
grams. Equality was no stranger to their political discourse, and it was clear
to me both intended a fair and just America. Lyndon Johnson knew how
to create opportunity; John Gardner how to fulfill it.”
In the case of the White House Fellows, it’s a testament to President
Johnson’s leadership that he was willing to let all the credit fall to his

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