The passing of former Baltimore Mayor, Maryland Governor and Maryland Comproller William Donald Schaefer this week marks the end of an era in Maryland politics. And it denotes a rite of passage for me in my history of community involvement.
Growing up in the Howard County of the 70s, HoCo really didn't have much of an identity. There was Columbia-- itself very new-- Ellicott City, and everything else. Elkridge was part of "everything else", and since all of our family and most of our friends lived in Baltimore, we became oriented towards Baltimore, now Howard County. So the Schaefer Administration, and more importantly, his style, became well known to me.
When he jumped into the seal tank of the National Aquarium, I laughed. But I also took notice-- this guy made a promise, it didn't come through, and he was willing to do something to make amends for not making good on his word. That's a good public servant. And the Schaefer"Do it now!" philosophy of the 70s and 80s-- who in Baltimore, especially at that time, have a problem with that??? I think it's fair to say that Schaefer became my first model of a public servant-- note I didn't say "politician".
The next great Schaefer memory came the night of March 29, 1984-- the night the Colts left. I recall a tearful Mayor Schaefer on the steps of his rowhouse, saying, "The man told me he'd keep the team here" over and over again. He wasn't worried about economic development, or polls, or public image at that moment. Again, it was all about someone's word. Someone hadn't kept it with him, and so he couldn't keep it with the city he loved and that he embodied.
Fast forward to the early 90s. I was a leader in a student-run model Maryland legislature (The Maryland Student Legislature, incidentally) and we were having our annual session in late April at the State House. We had never had a Governor address us and I tried very hard-- used all my connections-- to try to get Governor Schaefer to speak with us. Eventually, about two weeks from the date, we were told by his assistant that he wasn't available. I was furious, disappointed, and crushed personally at that time.
The last day of the session, a couple of my friends in the organization were between the State House and Government House (the Governor's mansion) taking a break when in pulled the Governor. About ten minutes later Governor Schaefer was walking his dog around the grounds. My friends spotted him and they started up a conversation with him-- and in the course, told him that he had been invited to speak to us, but that he had turned us down.
Minutes after that, my friends ran in and told me I had to steop the entire session. Why? Because the Governor was taking us on a tour of the Governor's Mansion! And a few minutes later, we all appeared at the gate of Government House-- and so he did. We had a very nice 45 minute tour of the house and grounds, guided by Governor Schaefer himself! As a token of appreciation I gave him some of our promotional pens; he took the moment to say that these pens would mean more to him than the pens he used to sign the Chinese trade agreement he'd just returned from. In China. And so that struck me. Here he could have blown us all off and could've just had a well-deserved sleep. But he didn't. Because he felt he hadn't kept his word.
And I guess that's the big lesson I've learned about the life of William Donald Schaefer. The guy was prone to some real gaffes. But he was at his best when he had that optimistic outlook, when he could talk about complicated policy matters in terms of how it mattered to real people, how he could make great demands around him, but with a wink that he didn't take the whole thing, or himself, entirely seriously. Thinking about it, that way of life isn't such a bad one to be, and to be honest, there's something in Schaefer's life from which we could all learn.
