U.S.
Office of Personnel Management
Speech by
Janice R. Lachance, Director
Curt Smith FEIAA Luncheon
Fort McNair Officers Club
Washington, D.C.
September 22, 1998
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U.S.
Office of Personnel Management
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Good afternoon; and thank you, Sherman [Raglan], for that kind introduction.
It's always difficult to say goodbye to someone who has made your job easier. So saying goodbye to Curt Smith is a decidedly bittersweet occasion.
Fortunately, Curt is not disappearing immediately. It should be no surprise to anyone in this room to hear that he is irreplaceable, so finding someone to take his position is neither a quick nor an easy task.
Curt will remain on the job while we -- with his able assistance -- search for a successor. So while FEIAA says 'adieu' today, we at OPM will have a longer goodbye to say -- and share -- with Curt in the future. I am very pleased that he will serve as Director of the FEI and Executive Resources for a while longer. In this case, a long goodbye is the only way to make it easier for OPM, and for me personally.
Curt, as we all know, is an effusive man. He realizes that this is one of his distinguishing traits.
He himself has often told the tale about an instance where his daughter was extremely pleased and excited about something she had accomplished. She was full of her experience, and going on a mile a minute, a gusher of emotion.
She related how her parents were similarly affected by her mood. What was her expression of how her father took the excitement? She said "He was really excited. He said "very good."
And she WAS thrilled about that.
Well, a "very good" or "well done" from Curt is something to treasure. He may not elaborate, but he means it, and the comment has an impact. Just consider the source.
Curt came up through OPM. He is one of us, a member of the family. That is rare for recent FEI directors, but he has proven more than capable in that capacity.
Curt began working for OPM before there was an OPM. He began in March, 1977, at the Civil Service Commission as a Legislative and Technical Assistant, GS-7 in the Bureau of Retirement, Insurance and Occupational Health (BRIOH).
He left us in 1984 for a stint at OMB as a Budget Examiner. But he quickly returned a year later as Policy Advisor to the Director of OPM.
A year later, in August 1986, he became the Associate Director for Career Entry. The next step came in December 1989, when Curt became Associate Director for Retirement and Insurance. And, in August 1994, he was reassigned to the position of Director, Federal Executive Institute, which later evolved into the position of Director of Executive Resources.
Curt is a work dynamo. He's hard to catch.
Since he went to Charlottesville, I usually have to catch up to him on the cell phone. Even during our conversation, it's obvious he's in a busy environment. Often, I'll hear background cries of "FORE" as some student at FEI shouts out an answer to a question, and sometimes he says "Just a moment, Janice," and then I'll hear him politely saying something like, "I have to take this call, so please play through" to someone who apparently interrupted him.
I don't quite understand that reference to playing through, but I'm sure it must have something to do with role-playing in one of the FEI seminars.
Of course, part of Curt's success as director of FEI comes from his intellectual capacity. Curt is a great student of literature, and literature is nothing less than the study of humankind itself. That's great preparation for his job.
As someone once noted -- "the proper study of man is man." I believe that was either Pope or Milton. If the exact source is important to you, ask Curt. If he doesn't know, that's the only Jeopardy question under the heading of "literature" that he will miss today.
What will Curt do in retirement? Well, he won't sit still. The way he lives life assures us of that.
Perhaps he'll take a cue from one of his favorite books, "Huckleberry Finn," which he has a habit of rereading every year or so. That's a novel that exists on multiple levels, the most simple level being a story about two guys taking a long trip down a big river on a small raft.
Curt might try that in retirement. Going down the river on a raft would be a welcome change from the more usual position a highly placed public servant finds himself or herself in -- namely, being UP THE RIVER.
As Huck Finn notes about his voyage: "We said there warn't no place like a raft, after all. Other places do seem so cramped up and smothery, but a raft don't. You feel mighty free and easy and comfortable on a raft."
My wish for Curt is that even an active retirement, as I'm sure his will turn out to be, should be "free and easy and comfortable."
And certainly a trip down the Mississippi would nicely balance his near-annual rite of riding his bicycle up the C&O Canal -- along the Potomac River -- in the company of Ed Flynn, our current Associate Director of Retirement and Insurance Service.
Ed is another wild and crazy, overly emotional and demonstrative guy, as many of you probably know.
Curt, Ed revealed your secrets when asked to expound on the topic of my speech, "Curt Smith, the Man and the Legend."
He noted that on these wild-man biker jaunts up the river, you routinely throw caution to the winds and abandon the practice of wearing -- dare I reveal this? -- crisp, starched shirts. And Ed complains that -- led astray by the peer pressure you ruthlessly apply on these wheeled adventures -- you often urge him to "LET HIS BEARD GROW" and go without shaving along your 185-mile, four-day route. These really are two wild and crazy guys.
I can imagine the reaction of innkeepers and restaurant hosts when this pair of bikers appears in their establishments -- starchless, hairy, spouting cigar smoke and doubtless sometimes either mud-splattered or wearing a crust of bike-path dust. As Conrad concluded in "Heart of Darkness" -- still another famous novelette centering on a river voyage -- "The horror. The horror!"
But there's no horror at all regarding how the people who work for and with Curt at FEI feel about him. Here's a portrait of his tenure there drawn from those who know him best.
Curt is a good listener and came to FEI saying that he wanted to look and listen for awhile before he made any changes.
He immediately liked the new emphasis -- since he had attended the program in 1987 -- on the Constitution and understanding the American form of governance. He made it his goal to strengthen that part of the curriculum and championed the idea that participants have to be reminded that they work for the President as part of the Executive Branch, and not for Congress or interest groups or the media. He took great pleasure in debating this issue with the Public Administration department academics at Virginia Tech.
He studied up on Jefferson and Hamilton and found that he liked some of Hamilton's ideas, a point he loved to rub in with the died-in-the wool Jeffersonians at FEI. He even found a portrait of Hamilton to hang in the Virginia Study, opposite to the portrait of Jefferson. Pam Gwin threatened to blindfold the bust of Thomas Jefferson on the day the picture was hung.
To the surprise of a very serious visitor who once asked Curt what his "vision was for the Institute in the 21st century", Curt responded just as seriously, "to keep it firmly planted in the 18th century!" The visitor didn't know what to say and Curt just smiled, only explaining his statement after a long moment of awkward silence.
From then on, when anyone interviewed him and began to ask about the "future" of the FEI, staffers smiled in anticipation as they waited for Curt's punch line.
Of course, Curt is right. The roots of government are in the past, and must be nourished and maintained to safeguard the flowers and fruit that bloom in the future.
Curt is also a true man of the future in regard to technology. Apparently, at one point he believed a 21-speed bicycle was the ultimate expression of humanity's technological progress, and the human species need advance no further.
During his first two years at FEI, Curt often wondered aloud to the faculty and staff about why they wanted to upgrade their audio-visual and computer-generated graphics capability. He thought overhead projectors were just fine.
He always wanted to know why the staff thought the "newer" technology was better. Then, last year, he discovered the power of some computer-simulated technology in the classroom -- allowing execs to "fail" in private and then learn from their mistakes.
With a passion formerly best exhibited when he discovered golf, Curt became a convert and led the discussions throughout OER about how we might incorporate the best parts of that idea into our programs. The reformed "luddite" began to push the program managers to think creatively and change the old routines.
In other words, like all the best executives -- Curt has the capacity to learn, and grow, and adapt -- and lead change. It's just a matter of first getting his attention.
His dry sense of humor took a little getting used to for some people at FEI who couldn't tell when he was joking.
But he loves a good joke and can make fun of himself, as the story he often shares about his daughter has already indicated.
A new FEI tradition has grown up out of his desire to find a way to tell people that they were being grumpy. He asked the program office to find him small, metal trash can lid similar to the one that Oscar the Grouch -- from Sesame Street -- lives under. Once the lid was found and delivered, Curt presented it to a staff member. And he instructed that fortunate individual to pass it on to the next appropriate recipient.
Someone added a title to the lid that reads, "The Grouch is In." It has made a few rounds. When someone keeps it for too long, Curt sends them a message about it. Just the rumor that someone is being grouchy brings lots of laughter about being awarded "the garbage can lid."
By the way, the lid currently sits outside his office -- and he rarely explains it to visitors who eye it as they are ushered into his office. Curt, you may want to tell us how it came back to you?
His staff enjoyed the big bottle of soap for bubbles -- the kind kids blow -- that Curt kept in his office.
He said someone at OPM had given it to him to indicate that he had lots of good ideas floating out of his office -- and some of them worked and some did not. In conversations he will sometimes say "this is just a bubble" to indicate that he wants to brainstorm.
Curt says that he and Susan liked the smaller-town nature of Charlottesville -- and they now find themselves in a much smaller place, Farmville, Va. [pronounced "Fawnville"]. They don't have cable in Farmville -- and in general Curt hates TV -- but I understand he is working with the town elders to at least get the golf channel!
Curt loves toys. He has a riding tractor for the lawn and a rotor-tiller. But his impish nature is reportedly urging him to buy a motorcycle so he can ride around town with his golf clubs on the back.
I expect you'll wind up participating in the Sturgis Motorcycle Classic next summer. You'll be the only black-leather-clad, bearded, unstarched Harley-riding biker wearing plus-fours and argyle socks!
The staff at FEI say that Curt has been a quiet, strong, steady influence. He is well-liked. He is straightforward, and yet never pushy. He empowers his employees.
Pam Gwin, who knows Curt well, says: "He is the only boss I have ever had who quoted Shakespeare to make a point, or used Chaucer characters to describe a person he just met. He is in the wrong century!"
Curt, she may be right. But we're glad that you are part of our time -- both at OPM and in government service -- and I suspect that because of your steady hand the 21st century will be FEI's time.
Curt -- Very Good! Thank you for everything.
--end--
Page Created 24 September 1998