Elmer B. Staats: Tribute to a Phenomenal Public Servant

Elmer Boyd Staats (1914-2011) died July 23, 2011 in Washington, DC, after nearly a century of contributing to the public good. In writing an article for Giants in Management (published by the National Academy of Public Administration in 1987), I was privileged to interview Elmer and many who served with him at the former Bureau of the Budget and then-General Accounting Office, and in his role as one of the founders of the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA) and National Academy.

In 1966, President Johnson became one of the eight presidents Staats served when he appointed and the Senate confirmed Staats to be comptroller general of the United States, a position in which he served for the full 15-year term. No one ever knew if Elmer was a Democrat or Republican, and he was proud of that. When asked, he would point, with a smile, to a needlepoint pillow he kept in his office; one side had a donkey, the other an elephant.

When Elmer took the helm of GAO (now the Government Accountability Office and still GAO), its focus was largely on the financial aspects of government. It had long since moved beyond auditing individual government spending vouchers, but those who read GAO's reports in the 1960s would not have found any on how to make government programs operate more effectively. Elmer pushed GAO (initially with mixed opinions from its senior staff) into what he called 'management auditing,' and hired staff from nearly every discipline to contribute to its work.

He also insisted that GAO move from an organization of largely white men (as was typical of most federal agencies of the time) to one with many women and African-Americans. (He would be thrilled at the many cultures that GAO staff represent today.) Elmer loved to tell the story of how, after a season of recruiting, frustrated senior staff said they were having difficulty meeting Elmer's commitment to hire more African American staff. Discouraged, someone in the room said that the financial disciplines had a lower proportion of black graduates than some other fields. "Are you telling me Howard University has few accountants graduating today?" Elmer asked. He said you could have heard a pin drop; GAO had never recruited at Howard, and no one had added it to the list of colleges visited. With a broad smile he would later say that everyone had good intentions, but sometimes you had to help them think more broadly.

Elmer did not help found the International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI), which is comprised of the world's auditors and comptrollers general, but he helped it become a strong United Nations affiliated organization. Elmer's keenest interest was to ensure that each nation had a cadre of talented staff to perform its work. When asked, he said that it was partially because U.S. funds go overseas and they needed to be accounted for but, he added, "It's the right thing to do." Elmer did not have the chance to host the triennial INTOSAI Congress, but when Comptroller General Charles A. Bowsher did in 1992, Elmer attended not only the main events, but individual idea-sharing sessions as well. As he said later, he "wanted to know what was going on."

Elmer founded GAO's International Fellows Program in 1979, and from six to fifteen auditors from other countries attend each year. They learn from U.S. staff, but the perspectives and knowledge they pass among each other and share with GAO staff have created a cadre of colleagues and friends around the globe. This was exactly what Elmer had in mind. Though he did not seek recognition for himself, Elmer was a firm believer in rewarding quality public service. He took the lead in establishing the National Public Service Award (NPSA), which is presented jointly by ASPA and the Academy. He said, in 2003, that he was humbled to be a recipient of that year's "Keeper of the Flame" award, which is presented to those who continue to contribute to public service after formal retirement. His nominator was then-Comptroller General David Walker.

Elmer firmly believed that most decisions can be reached through consensus, and he was not shy about pushing to achieve it. Though he rarely relayed "inside stories," as I was writing the chapter for Giants in Management, first NASA Administrator James Webb relayed the following. According to Webb, President Johnson once called Elmer to Camp David, where he and a group of Texas congressmen and Governor John Connally, a close associate of Johnson's, greeted Elmer. Referring to the proposed Trinity River Dam Project, President Johnson stated that he wanted it and all the Texas members of Congress wanted it, but the deputy director of the Bureau of the Budget was against it. Firmly assuming his responsibility to give the President what he believed to be the right advice, Staats took great pains to explain why the project should not be authorized. In the end, the President recommended that the project not be built. This popular water project was not constructed because somewhere along the line a difficult consensus was reached. In this case, Elmer Staats was the catalyst.

Until the 20^th century, most men and women operated within their fields and among others with similar educational backgrounds. Elmer and a few other forward-thinking colleagues founded ASPA, in 1939 in Chicago, and the National Academy of Public Administration, in 1967 in Washington. He and James Webb and Professor Donald Stone were among leaders who saw the need for synergy, professional development, and shared leadership among the many disciplines that comprise what is today the very diverse field of public administration. The term was largely unknown in 1939. Literally hundreds of thousands of individuals have belonged to ASPA and hundreds have been elected to the National Academy (which is modeled on the National Academy of Sciences). It was with his ASPA and National Academy friends that Elmer celebrated his 90^th birthday, in Washington, DC.

Elmer continued his mission to create stronger public servants when, after retiring as comptroller general, he headed the Harry S Truman Scholarship Foundation, which awards scholarships to those who plan a career in public service. He was chairman emeritus of its board until he died. Elmer was a firm believer in educating young people for public service, thinking that it is as important to prepare leaders for the public sector as it is to prepare students for careers in medicine or teaching.

Though known for his accomplishments, Elmer was ordinary in all the ways that matter. He listened to the views of his peers and those decades younger with the same level of interest. Elmer also guarded public funds in his personal use of them. When he and his wife Margie (Margaret Rich Staats, daughter of the late Congressman Rich of Pennsylvania and strong volunteer for UNICEF) traveled to INTOSAI meetings, they often did not stay in the designated hotel, but would find a smaller (and less expensive one) nearby. He and Margy shared a commitment to frugality; she would bring dry cereal and they would buy milk and eat breakfast in their room most days, believing that hotel breakfasts were overpriced and the taxpayers did not need to fund what they regarded as an extravagance.

Though it sounds like a cliche, there really can never be anyone like Elmer Staats. Fortunately, many were privileged to learn from him. Elmer often said that the president he admired most was Harry Truman. While the late president had a sign on his desk that said, "The buck stops here," Truman's personal motto was "always do right." In that, he and Elmer Staats were truly kindred spirits.