The myriad commissions, ad hoc groups and committees that National Public Service Award winner Peter McPherson has started or joined during his decades of public service indicate his dedication to teamwork and getting things done
Peter McPherson
‘A passion to help people’
National Public Service Award
Peter McPherson
File photo
The myriad commissions, ad hoc groups and committees that National Public Service Award winner Peter McPherson has started or joined during his decades of public service indicate his dedication to teamwork and getting things done.
“He’s got more energy than any two people I know,” said Howard Gobstein, associate vice president and director of federal relations at Washington-based Partnership to Cut Hunger and Poverty in Africa. McPherson launched that organization with colleague Earl Kellog, a professor emeritus at the University of Illinois.
A former administrator of the Agency for International Development, McPherson is one of five winners of the 2005 National Public Service Award and the only recipient with federal service. The award, which recognizes public service at all levels of government, is sponsored by the American Society for Public Administration and the National Academy of Public Administration.
“Peter’s looking to make things happen, and he has a passion to help people,” Gobstein said.
McPherson’s work ethic and team focus came with his upbringing as one of eight children born to farmers in Lowell, Mich. All eight eventually earned degrees at Michigan State University, which encourages its students to study abroad. This lesson was not lost on the young McPherson.
His public service career began as a Peace Corps volunteer in Peru. There, he mobilized other volunteers to start a program to promote healthy eating in schools.
His career eventually took him to many high places in public service. In addition to his stint as administrator for the Agency for International Development, he served as chairman of the board of the Overseas Private Investment Corp., deputy secretary of the Treasury Department and special assistant to President Ford.
McPherson also served as president of his alma mater from 1993 to 2004. Yet throughout his impressive career, his Midwestern roots have kept him grounded, according to Gobstein. The 64-year-old McPherson, who often chews on an unlit cigar, is a father figure at the partnership.
“I’ve know a lot of presidents,” he said. “Peter’s the least pretentious of them all.”
During his time as MSU president, McPherson was on a commission that studied international agriculture funding. The group decided that AID had reversed its efforts toward getting agriculture funding. While McPherson was administrator of AID in the 1980s, he created a food distribution network as part of the U.S. response to the famine in Africa.
“Something needed to be done, so Peter formed an ad hoc group with two dozen university presidents, to push agricultural development for economic growth,” Gobstein said. This was in January 2000, and the effort marked the beginnings of the partnership.
McPherson later proposed gathering universities and nonprofit organizations to discuss whether U.S. efforts to assist Africa could be improved.
A plan emerged for a summit, and not a small one.
The Partnership to Cut Hunger and Poverty in Africa 2001 World Conference was held in June 2001 and comprised the heads of state of Mali, Nigeria, Ghana, Uganda and Mozambique. The summit’s mission was to see the leaders commit to poverty and hunger reduction in Africa.
“Sure enough, it was an unbelievable conference,” said Gobstein.
According to Gobstein, it was the vision of McPherson, Kellog and others that there needed to be a melding of interests — by religious leaders, food relief groups, development groups, government and industry. These groups all had individual efforts, but often they were not working together.
“So Peter formed an executive committee to work together. He had the president of Mali, Alpha Konaré, who’s now the head of the African Union. Sen. Bob Dole was in. Congressman Lee Hamilton, and the head of the U.S. Farm Bureau, David Beckmann. He added several African leaders.”
Today, the partnership’s executive and advisory committees continue to convene people and lead efforts by several working groups.
“Peter is a man of vision. He’s the quintessential internationalist.”
TONI MALTAGLIATI
