A Pride Loses its Lion
by The Editors on September 16, 2009 in News
Community mourns the loss of friend, colleague, mentor
By Kevin Miller, MPP’11 News Writer and Bill Forry, MPA-MC’10 News Writer
The first day of orientation at HKS came to an abrupt pause on August 25, when Dean Ellwood called the community together to mourn the loss of one of the school’s guiding lights, the late Senator Edward M. Kennedy.
Dean Ellwood assured the somber gathering that the hushed moment of silence in the Kennedy School courtyard would be just the first of many opportunities to reflect on the immeasurable dedication of Sen. Kennedy to public service and the people and principles of the Commonwealth and the U.S.
Sen. Kennedy’s devotion to HKS and its Institute of Politics (IOP) had been a cornerstone to its success since the inception of the IOP and evolution of the school.
“From the start, Sen. Kennedy insisted that the core of the Institute’s mission was inspiring our students to lives of public service,” said Bill Purcell, Director of the IOP.
Pursuing what he saw as a memorial to President John F. Kennedy Jr., Sen. Kennedy played as active a role as possible in order to ignite the interest of America’s youth in public service. A Harvard graduate himself, he served as a board member of the IOP for four decades, and was a visible presence on campus.
“As in the Senate he made the difference here year after year after year, and the Institute and our world are all the better because he cared so much,” said Purcell.
Marty Nolan, a former Boston Globe reporter who covered Kennedy’s career from his first race for Senate in 1962, recalls that Teddy was involved in the earliest considerations of the HKS origins. In April 1963, the president toured the Cambridge area to scout locations for what he then envisioned as a presidential archive. His motorcade – with his youngest brother in tow — stopped near the site of Harvard Business School, Nolan says, and the president pointed across the river to what was then an MBTA train and bus depot.
After JFK’s assassination, the Senator played a central role in a debate about where the president’s library would be sited. After stiff resistance formed against the construction of a museum, the Kennedy Library was instead sited at Dorchester’s Columbia Point. The MBTA land in Harvard Square would instead become the home of the modern-day Kennedy School.
Nolan says that Kennedy was stung by what was widely seen as the Cambridge community’s rebuke of his family legacy, but nonetheless threw himself into the work of shaping the IOP.
On the 35th anniversary of the IOP in December of 2001, Sen. Kennedy remarked, “It was always the hope for the members of the family that this Institute would be able to create some climate, some atmosphere, some ability to try and spark that kind of interest [in public service] in young people. And I think if the Institute is successful in being able to strike that spark, it’ll be the most fitting memorial to his name.”
However, it was not always a given that HKS would be the institution that it is today. The modern Kennedy School and IOP’s fledgling course was neither sure nor free of stumbles.
“Sen. Kennedy often said that we were setting out to sail in an untested dinghy in the midst of schooners and warships,” recalled Graham Allison, former Dean of the Kennedy School. “He would ask, ‘Do we really think this thing is going to float?’”
Despite the IOP famously bounding into the public eye by publicly clashing with former Defense Secretary Robert McNamara shortly after opening its doors, HKS and the IOP continued to flourish, thanks in large part to Sen. Kennedy’s tireless support. Kennedy would sometimes host advisory board meetings at his home in McLean, Virginia, Nolan said.
Nolan – who served as a fellow at the IOP in 1977 - said that Kennedy “was not just a pro-forma name on the letterhead. He was deeply interested. He especially liked the idea of bringing in fellows without any academic credentialing. You get people in there with practical experience in politics.”
“Over time, he came to take considerable satisfaction in the fact that the school had emerged now, not just a small dinghy, but at a vessel that was holding its own amongst the other distinguished schools at Harvard.” said Allison.
Senator Kennedy was also instrumental in the creation of the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy in 1986. Kennedy was among those who counseled the Shorenstein family to create a living memorial to their daughter, a Washington Post reporter who died at age 38.
One of the Senator’s own seminal speeches was staged in the HKS Forum in October 1991, a time in which Kennedy was under intense criticism following a scandal involving his nephew, William Kennedy Smith, who had been accused of raping an acquaintance in Palm Beach, Florida. Smith was acquitted, but Kennedy was battered by persistent rumors about heavy drinking and carousing. Dubbed “The Act of Contrition” speech by the press corps, the Forum speech is seen as a key marker in Kennedy’s career.
Sen. Kennedy returned one last time to Harvard in December of 2008 to receive an honorary Doctor of Laws from Harvard President Drew Faust, which included the following citation:
“Resolute in pursuit of opportunity for all,
dauntless in sailing against the wind,
a statesman for all seasons with a singular devotion
to country, commonwealth, and the common good.”
Thunderous applause greeted Sen. Kennedy at every opportunity throughout the evening, whether in response to accounting for his accolades or to his own address to those gathered.
“If you look at his spirit and words that day, it clearly felt fulfilling to him. I don’t think I’d seen him happier. Several people commented that the audience didn’t want him to leave that stage, and he didn’t want to go,” said Allison.
The absence of Sen. Kennedy’s voice from the raging public debates in Washington, DC and town halls across the country is palpable. Even as twilight overtook Sen. Kennedy’s spark, though, he never ceased to from fanning the flame of the next generation of leaders and public servants.
Kennedy’s closing remarks to the university he so loved last December resonated throughout the halls of the Sanders Theater.
“For all of my years in public life, I have believed that America must sail towards the shores of liberty and justice for all. Know there is no end to that journey, only the next great voyage. We know the future will outlast all of us, but I believe that all of us will live on in the future we make. In that spirit I thank Harvard for this great honor, and I thank Massachusetts for the privilege of serving its people and its principles. I have lived a blessed time. And now, with you, I look forward to a new time of aspiration and high achievement for our nation and the word.”
Exploring Healthcare Reform in the U.S.
by The Editors on April 29, 2009 in Features
- Massachusetts’ Health Care System: an Rx for the Country?
- Interview with IOP Fellow Jim Ramstad
- Health as a National Security Issue
Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius to Speak at 2009 HKS Commencement
by The Editors on April 15, 2009 in News
Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius, nominated by President Obama as the next Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), will deliver the 2009 graduation address at HKS on June 3. Read more
From Harvard Square to the Oval Office
by The Editors on April 15, 2009 in Features
The HKS Oval Office Program is a non-partisan initiative of the school’s Women and Public Policy Program. Its purpose is to provide female students at the Kennedy School with the training, support, and network they need to successfully navigate professional politics.
Naye Bathily (MC/MPA ‘09) , Sheila Lalwani (MPP ‘09) , and Malgorzata Steiner (MPP ‘09) , three participants in this year’s program, share their experiences and aspirations for public service.
Black History Month at HKS
by The Editors on February 25, 2009 in Features
- What It’s Like to Be Black During Black History Month by Erica E. Harrison (MPP ‘10)
- An Interview with Nijla Mumin by Samina Uddin (MPA ‘09)
- Pioneering Politician: A Review of Chisholm ‘72: Unbought and Unbossed by Thomas Gill (MPP ‘09)
- Photos from Apollo Night 2009 by Katherine Ellis (MC/MPA ‘09)
International Day Celebrations
by The Editors on February 25, 2009 in Features
HKS celebrated its 2nd Annual International Day on Friday, February 20. (Photo: Syon Bhanot)
February 25, 2009 Issue
by The Editors on February 25, 2009 in Print Edition
Apollo Night
by The Editors on February 25, 2009 in Features
Apollo Night, part of HKS’s Black History Month festivities, is AADC’s annual talent showcase, featuring music, dance, poetry, comedy and more from the Kennedy School community. (Photos: Katherine Ellis, MPA/MC ‘09) Read more
February 11, 2009 Issue
by The Editors on February 11, 2009 in Print Edition
December 10 Issue
by The Editors on December 10, 2008 in Print Edition
