Shoulders of giants

Dr. James L. Perry

Jim Perry co-chaired my doctoral dissertation research.  With Charlie Wise, he is responsible for sparking and then fueling my passion for public management.  With startling brilliance, Jim has modeled excellence in the academy in all of its facets: research/publication, service, teaching, and mentoring to be sure, but also innovation, mentoring, networking, and leadership.  But, more remarkably, I also look to Jim for his excellence outside of the academy.  He is a loving husband, father and grandfather.  As a father and husband myself, I’ve drawn on Jim’s example when seeking ‘balance’ in the personal and professional.  David O. McKay nicely captures the understanding that Jim intuitively has when it comes to the endeavor of education:

• True education does not consist merely in the acquiring of a few facts of science, history, literature, or art, but in the development of character. 

I’ve often heard Jim described (by his wife, colleagues/friends and even himself) as “a character,” but I am also grateful for Jim’s goodness and depth of character.  He has encouraged the development of character in me and others fortunate enough to interact with him.  He has contributed much to the study of public service motivation, but he also infectiously reflects that motivation in his personal life.  Thanks Jim!

Dr. Elinor Ostrom (1933-2012)

I have benefitted from the direction, intellect, and friendship of many great scholars. I can’t ascribe this to anything but my own dumb luck.  Among these great scholars, I was fortunate to work with Dr. Ostrom during a year of my doctoral studies. As a fairly traditional public management student, I was a bit of an outsider in a course full of political scientists. That didn’t matter to Lin; she challenged my ideas and training and expected me to challenge hers. She was no stranger to public administration, but she made me to feel that I possessed a unique perspective that needed to be heard and thoughtfully developed. She instilled confidence while continually pushing me to question and improve. Her work on rules and the institutional analysis and development (IAD) framework has informed both my research and teaching.  She was the first female recipient of the Nobel Prize in Economics (2009).  Professor Elinor Ostrom passed away this morning (June 12, 2012) in Bloomington, IN after battling cancer.   http://newsinfo.iu.edu/news/page/normal/22577.html

Dr. Charles Wise

Charlie Wise directed and supported my doctoral dissertation research.  He is partly responsible for my passion for public management.  I wrote the following in 2013 as a contribution to celebrate, with OSU, his excellent career.

Dear Charlie,

Warmest congratulations to you on a career that will leave lasting, positive changes on how we think, teach, write, and behave.  For me you have been a guiding light, personal mentor, and advocate.  Thank you.   

You and Lois were the first two faculty members with whom I spoke when investigating doctoral programs.  The rest, as they say, is history.  Since that first phone interview you have inspired a passion in me that has helped me meld my legal training into teaching and research in public administration.

​One of my fondest memories occurred while I was 2nd year doc student.  You approached me about working on a project with you, and I thought, "I have arrived."  I don't recall the precise reason, but I later called your home to ask a question about the project and Lois answered the phone.  I gave my name and asked for Dr. Wise, and Lois (loosely) covered the phone and said, "For Pete's sake Charlie, when are you going to have him start calling you Charlie.  This Dr. Wise thing is getting confusing."  I think that was about the only confusion that ever arose in our interactions.   In everything else I was clear on your high expectations and demands for continual excellence.  Those expectations helped me and many others become better scholars. I am trying to 'pay forward' those same expectations to my current students. 

​We once wrote an article together--indeed it may have been that first project to which I referred previously--in which we argued that state-level administrative institutions frequently have more capacity for self-directed improvement than external [federal] institutions assume.  I will forever be grateful to you for seeing a greater capacity in me than I would have assumed myself.