Book Review
W. Astor Kirk, PhD, One Life: Three Professional Careers
(Long Beach, California: Magic Valley Publishers, 2007)
Managing in Turbulent Times
stor Kirks book recounting his three-pronged civil rights story
contains more than
the personal reflections of an African-American octogenarian who
grew up on
a farm in east Texas. It is a sensitive consideration of his
transformational leadership
experiences in three diverse public roles: (1) professor of
political science and
economics at a historically black college in Austin, Texas, in
194761; (2) program
manager with the United Methodist Church in 196166, a time of
desegregation
even within the Churchand considerable turmoil and division
throughout the
country; and (3) federal executive with the U.S. Office of Economic
Opportunity
(OEO) in 196682.
Having known the author for close to forty yearshe was a very
influential
mentor of mine when I served as a community action field
representative for OEO
in the early 1970sI believe Dr. Kirks unique professional story is
compelling
and well worth reading in its entirety. For purposes of this
review, however, I focus
solely on his third careerPart III of the book, which recounts key
choices he
made as a senior federal executive serving in politically turbulent
times. This period
of Dr. Kirks career covers the sixteen years he spent helping to
get the War on
Poverty off the ground in the Johnson administration, keeping it
alive and relevant
in the Nixon years, making the transition to a more collaborative
member of an
intergovernmental team during President Carters term of office.
Field Commander in the War on Poverty
Leaving academia, where he had pioneered by combining teaching and
civil
rights activities, Dr. Kirk took a step in the direction of greater
activismboth
within the organization and in the larger communitywhen he became
public
affairs director for the United Methodist Churchs Board of Church
and Society.
Then, four years into his second career and on the heels of
President Johnsons
announcement of the War on Poverty, he published a provocative
article that questioned
whether churches would make a significant contribution to
eliminating
poverty in the United States (W. Astor
Kirk, Poverty, Powerlessness, The
Church, CONCERN Magazine, Vol.
7, No. 8, May 1, 1965). Not surprisingly,
the article was brought to the
attention of then OEO Director Sargent
Shriver, and soon Astor was into
his third career as deputy director of
the OEO regional office covering
Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico,
Oklahoma, and Texas.
Getting accustomed to yet another
bureaucratic culture, the emerging
government leader reflected on the
regions mission and concluded that
the fuzzy relationship with headquarters
(in Washington, DC) made for
blurred lines of authority. Further decentralization
would be necessary to
achieve effective management in the
field. Moreover, the regional office
needed a reliable management information
control system to support
unconditional delegation of authority
to the regional director. And from
his search for a relevant narrative to
drive executive-level decision making,
he conceived of a three-dimensional
proactive mission of OEO to
provide the opportunity for
education and training, the
opportunity to work, and the
opportunity to live;
reclaim human capital and promote
upward social mobility;
and
empower the powerless across
the country.
Not bad for a recovering academic
and faith-based PR guy. Indeed, the
author telegraphs his transformational
agenda by noting: I utilized every
chance I had to infect the culture of
the regional office with the virus of
my three-dimensional concept of the
mission of OEO. Some examples of
this viral approach included (1) in
the Job Corps, seeking to not only
develop marketable skills, but to cultivate
a desire for upward economic
and social mobility as well (perhaps
accounting for the success of one
local Job Corps graduate, George
Foreman, who became an Olympic
heavyweight boxing champion and
successful entrepreneur); (2) engaging
young, idealistic Volunteers in
Service to America to not only perform
their assigned duties, but to discuss
how to improve the lives of poor
people in their service area; and (3)
promoting through the Community
Action Program communal decision
making and mobilization of resources
to address specific unmet need.
Fourteen Years Before the Mast
In Two Years before the Mast, William
Henry Dana was inspired by
a perilous sea journey in the mid-
1800s that took him halfway around
the world. While somewhat autobiographical,
his novel also weaves together
a sense of history and ethics
particularly regarding the unpleasant
conditions one had to bear during the
long ocean voyages. Years later, Dana
crusaded for more humane treatment
of sailors and human rights for slaves.
He helped form the anti-slavery Free
Soil Party, worked for the federal
government, and served in the state
legislature in Massachusetts.
Although Astor Kirks sojourn
in his next assignment may not have
been as arduous, it lasted fourteen
years and was almost continuously
headed against the wind on turbulent
waters. Having been elevated to
regional director of OEOs Mid-Atlantic
Region on November 1, 1968
(then headquartered in Washington,
DC), Dr. Kirk soon learned that
Richard Nixon would take the oath
of office as the nations next president
just three months later. Adding to the
likelihood of a looming storm was
candidate Nixons campaign promise
to abolish much of the Great Society,
including OEO.
The two chapters of the book
devoted to this turbulent fourteenyear
span provide a fascinating personal
and historical case study of
executive-level perseverance. Among
the many highlights (and lowlights)
with which Dr. Kirk has chosen to
illuminate these passages are the following
experiences:
Unknowingly walking into a
severe, top-to-bottom, interethnic
staff conflict in the regional
office and being handed
personnel recommendations
that would have continued the
almost total absence of diversity
in executive and senior
management, including an episode
recounting his dismay one
day to find more than a dozen
Oreo cookies taped to the back
of his office chair
Inheriting a major grantee controversy
in the nations capital
involving allegations of misuse
of federal funds by Youth
Pride, Inc., then spearheaded
by Marion Barry (later Mayor
Barry)a muddy, muddled, and
ultimately highly political affair
that would cause the author
professional, intellectual, and
moral conflicts
In the midst of President Nixon
rolling out his concept of New
Federalismreturning a
greater share of control to state
and local government and to the
peopleattempting to implement
the new direction under
the watchful eyes of the new
OEO Director (Donald Rumsfeld)
and his chief staff assistant
(Dick Cheney), while at the
same time reorganizing and relocating
the regional office from
Washington to Philadelphia in a
compressed time
Providing regional, inter-governmental
leadership aimed at
ensuring that the federal government
spoke with one clear
and consistent voicerather
than the confusing and conflicting
OEO, DOL, DOT, HEW,
and HUD voices and, at the
same time, leading flood relief
in West Virginia and Pennsylvania
and facing the Vietnam
refugee resettlement challenge
in Indian Head, Pennsylvania
Enduring OEOs transition
from an independent agency
even as the renamed Community
Service Administration
(CSA)to an entity in another
department and then later seeing
CSA fade away and morph
into the state-directed Community
Services Block Grant, the
apotheosis of New Federalism.
Epilogue
Another former OEO colleague
of mine, Alex Porter, who served
with Dr. Kirk as regional counsel,
noted, [Dr. Kirk] was willing to see
the good in humankind and to pay
the price for a successful and rewarding
life. This positive approach to
life was instilled in all [whose lives
he touched], encouraging them to
explore new and innovative ways of
thinking and expressing unique ideas
and concepts. Certainly, that is the
effect Dr. Kirk had in helping shape
my early involvement in public service.
When I watched along with millions
of others the events in Chicago
on the night of November 4, 2008,
and the inaugural swearing in and address
in Washington, DC, on January
20, 2009, I couldnt help but think of
the powerful example, the clarity and
constancy, that have marked this old
friends civil rights story.