"Explorer for Excellence"

To help mold an era in which excellence in education is one of the most important of U.S. goals, President Johnson last week appointed John William Gardner, 52, liberal Republican and president of the philanthropic Carnegie Corporation, as Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare. He succeeds Anthony Celebrezze, the Italian-born ex-mayor of Cleveland, who was nominated for a vacancy on the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, headquartered in Cincinnati.

The President was understandably proud of his choice. Gardner, he said, "has been all of his adult life an explorer in the search for excellence. As we near the outer edges of this century, the loss of quality and the discovery of excellence become the searing issues of the times. I know of no one who is better suited by temperament, by experience, and by intellectualism to confront these issues and bend them to the national desire."

Plumbers & Philosophers. Johnson quoted a passage from one of Gardner's books, Excellence: Can We Be Equal and Excellent Too? Wrote Gardner: "The society which scorns excellence in plumbing because plumbing is a humble activity and tolerates shoddiness in philosophy because it is an exalted activity will have neither good plumbing nor good philosophy. Neither its pipes nor its theories will hold water." Said Johnson: "Any man who can believe that and write it is the kind of man who ought to become the President's leader of the fastest-growing department in this Government."

A native Californian, Gardner holds

A.B. and M.A. degrees from Stanford and a Ph.D. in psychology from the University of California at Berkeley. He taught at Mount Holyoke College and Connecticut College, and after wartime service as a Marine Corps captain assigned to the OSS, he joined the Manhattan-based Carnegie Corporation, in nine years rose to the top. Gardner has also headed the Corporation's education arm, the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.

Under him, Carnegie has awarded grants worth more than $100 million, principally for educational research, which has stimulated improvements in everything from business schools to junior colleges. Gardner underwrote ex-Harvard President Dr. James Conant's studies of shortcomings in U.S. public schools and in teacher education. He is widely known in the U.S. educational establishment. The board of trustees of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching includes the presidents of major American universities. And it is no secret that Gardner has long exerted influences in the selection of U.S. college presidents.

Plucked Arm. Last year Gardner became chairman of Johnson's special task force on education which, the President reported last week, "helped to plant the seed bed of the education harvest that has been produced by the 89th Congress." Recommendations by the task force formed the basis for key sections of Johnson's $1.3 billion federal-aid-to-education law passed this year. A month ago, an aide strongly recommended Gardner to Johnson as a replacement for Celebrezze--and Gardner started undergoing the well-known Lyndon look-over.

Two weeks ago Gardner chaired a White House Conference on Education, further impressed the President by advising co-participants not to "nibble timidly around the edges" of the big issues, but to "start taking some barracuda-like bites." At a ceremony after the conference, Johnson plucked Gardner's arm, said, "I want to see you right after the reception." In his office Johnson broached the idea of HEW to Gardner, who, two days later, accepted --even though his $35,000 Government salary reportedly will be half of what he earned at Carnegie.

Word to the Board. Explains Gardner: "It is exceedingly difficult to say no when the President asks something of you of that magnitude." But by the President's own admission, the persuasion was not confined to his quarry. At his news conference last week, Johnson remarked that "I asked his board to relieve him of his duties and release him to the Government." The Carnegie Corporation denied that its board had been personally contacted by the President; the White House later explained that Johnson had meant that he relayed the request to the board through Gardner himself. In any event, Gardner's board exhibited no hesitation, let him go with a leave of absence.

Gardner is married and the father of two grown daughters; his wife is a Guatemalan whom he met through friends at Stanford.

He has no illusions about the complexity of his new job. HEW has 84,000 employees and a $30 billion annual budget, yet its six sprawling agencies* operate almost as independent entities, protected by their own cheering sections in Congress. Educators and some Congressmen have called for splitting off HEW's education office into a separate Cabinet-level Department of Education. Adding to the pressure, more burdens--and billions--are being piled on HEW as a result of Great Society programs, not the least of which is the $6.5 billion medicare scheme. Says Gardner: "I don't think even informed Americans have stopped to think what their representatives have made of this department. It has been handed an absolutely staggering set of assignments."

* The Food and Drug Administration, Social Security Administration, Public Health Service, Vocational Rehabilitation Administration, Welfare Administration, and Office of Education.

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