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U.S.
Office of Personnel Management
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We are -- literally -- surrounded by the legacy of the legendary Scotty Campbell. As Director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, I am the current leader of an organization he created -- and I occupy the office he exemplified. Every day, I deal with issues and initiatives he championed. Every day, I am struck by how prophetic was the public service vision he possessed. Scotty Campbell was the rare person who could identify the problems, and institute the solutions, knowing full well that it would take years of commitment for goverment to progress to the point where reality approached his vision. He was able, nevertheless, to establish a basic human resources structure that could be applied to all situations, one we still use today on behalf of federal workers and the American public. Those initiatives and proposals which he pioneered, we at OPM continue to deal with every day. Amazingly, we are still working, two decades after his time here, to bring his vision to full fruition. We do not doubt his vision or question the accuracy of his direction. We continue the march into the new millennium on trails that he blazed. Consider the Merit System Principles. Just a month ago, during the Interagency Advisory Groups live satellite television broadcast, I reiterated to the federal human resources community the bedrock importance of the Merit System Principles. It was Scotty who laid that foundation. It was his Civil Service Reform Act that put the Merit System Principles into law. We continue to walk on that path, because it was -- and remains -- the right way and the best way to assure that federal public service does not slide back into the treacherous morasses of the spoils system. That IS his legacy. Consider the bargaining rights of unions. Until Scotty Campbell, these were not legal rights at all but presidential orders that could be changed with the stroke of a pen. The bargaining rights of unions were set into law by Scotty Campbells efforts. Today, I am privileged to serve as chair of the National Partnership Council, which is trying to forge a better relationship among employees and employers, unions and management. You can criticize the results or the current state of affairs, but you cant argue with the vision. Because, if Scotty Campbell had not worked with President Carter and Congress to set these rights into law when they did, and if these rights had instead continued as mere presidential whims, I think it is both safe and fair to say that federal employees and their union representatives might not be in as strong a position as they currently enjoy. And that IS his legacy. Consider the Senior Executive Service. Scotty created it. He wanted the Senior Executive Service to be a corps of risk takers. He wanted to give the best-people-government-could-find the freedom -- and the responsibility -- to do their best. Just last summer, we revised the Senior Executive Service core qualifications to emphasize leading people and driving change, rather than the management of processes and being driven by conformity. That IS his legacy. Consider the not-so-current emphasis on results and performance. Scotty believed that, in a merit system, the measure of an individual is performance. He believed in planning objectives, setting standards, judging results and making adjustments. He believed in taking the best ideas he could from the private sector, and transplanting them into the public sector. The Government Performance and Results Act builds on individual performance to achieve organizational results. Scotty would have been delighted with the Performance and Results Act. Its philosophy IS his legacy. Consider private-public cooperation. Scotty played upon a stage far larger than the civil service. Whether in academia, the private sector or in public service, he built bridges to span the gap among those entities -- acting 20 years before most of us were concerned with the bridge to the 21st century. Today, we use those bridges he walked to a much greater extent than ever; and their use is increasing. We are going to see more and more Americans who, in the course of their 50 and 60 year careers, are going to move between economic sectors to the benefit of all. Scotty not only reformed the Civil Service, but he reformed the means by which future reforms would occur. He created the idea of demonstration projects to test promising new ideas before introducing more widespread change. Many of the reforms we seek today have been successfully tested in earlier projects. And, there is greater interest than ever in utilizing demonstration projects to test additional ideas for the next generation of change. He would have approved of efforts such as welfare to work, where governments and the private sector are cooperating to end welfare as we used to know it, and bring people into the dignity of the workforce. Such cooperation IS his legacy. Consider education. When President Clinton highlighted education in his State of the Union address, and emphasized lifelong learning, his words could have been drafted by Scotty Campbell. Scotty epitomized lifetime learning. He was a lifelong student, and a lifelong teacher. He was dean at both the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University, and the Lyndon Baines Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas. He considered his highest honor to be the success of his students. Today at OPM, we reach out to universities to enlist the best and brightest students for public service, and support the public schools in our communities in ways both direct and indirect. And within OPM itself, we have initiated a core competency program to be sure every employee has an opportunity to gain training that allows them to operate at a fully successful level, and we stress to employees that they need to continually improve to be able to face and fulfill the challenges of the future. And we stress that we, as employer, are full partners in that effort; that lifelong learning is essential to employers, employees and the nation. That IS his legacy. But there is one legacy Scotty leaves us, that shines above all his legacies. It was rooted in his sense that the success of his students was paramount. People. He enticed thousands of Americans into public service careers -- thousands of people who today give of themselves to their country and communities. He truly believed in attracting the best and the brightest into public service, and in todays federal service we can accept nothing less if we are to succeed for the American people. He knew long ago that was the right thing to do, and today we rededicate ourselves to fulfilling that vision. That IS his legacy. To remember all he did -- all he gave us -- all the bridges he built and the trails he blazed -- OPM wanted a special way to remember and honor Scotty. So, beginning at this moment, when we are all assembled in his memory, I would like to tell you that we are gathered together in the Alan Keith Campbell Auditorium. We are naming it in his honor, and I hope we at OPM are given many, many opportunities over the decades ahead to respond to the question Say, who was Alan K. Campbell? And that will be part of our legacy to the legendary Scotty Campbell. Now Id like to introduce you to a person Scotty doubtless would have counted as among his most important legacies, his daughter -- Kimberly Campbell Oxholm. Kim, will you join me at the podium, please? While Kim is making her way up to the stage, Ill try to embarrass her a little. First -- I should note for those of you who were fortunate enough to know Scotty -- Kim resembles her father. And that resemblance goes beyond physical appearances. Not only does she have the same sparkling eyes and disarming smile, but her own career in public service is a chip of the old block as well. After completing her college degree at Syracuse, Kim earned her masters degree in public policy from the Kennedy School at Harvard. She volunteers for community service, charitable causes and political campaigns, and in 1995 was elected to the Lower Merion Board of School Directors. I suspect thats just a beginning. Now, Kim, before we turn the podium over to you for your comments, Id like to thank you for joining us today, and present you with a few tokens of our high regard for your father. First, from the family he founded here at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, an American flag in remembrance of all the many services he performed for his country. Next, in keeping with the fact that Scotty was indeed the first and always an original, we would like to present the first U.S. Office of Personnel Management Award for Meritorious Service. the first U.S. Office of Personnel Management Award for Meritorious Service The medal comes with this citation.
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Web page created 11 March 1998