tropical blossoms
When Martin Luther King, Jr., scribbled in the margins of a newspaper his famous Letter from Birmingham Jail, he took issue with white religious allies who had counseled patience. How long did they have in mind? King wondered. Wasn’t a century long enough?
Leadership at every scale has to deal with caution. When psychologist Nevitt Sanford founded the Wright Institute in Berkeley, it was a gaggle of “action researchers.” After the successful war against Nazism, Sanford had helped to write The Authoritarian Personality and later had resigned on principle from a University of California professorship when the state imposed a McCarthyite loyalty oath.
A group of senior researchers at the Institute gathered in Sanford’s office to discuss starting a graduate school of clinical-social psychology. After covering the need and the resources available, one researcher said they could now form a “feasibility committee” and report back in six months.
Sanford drew on his pipe. “We could do that,” he said, sitting forward, “or we could start the school tomorrow morning. Each of us could call leading professors of psych around the country and ask them to alert their best graduating seniors. We could ask Bay Area psychotherapists to help teach. We could ask applicants to fine-tune the curriculum they need.”
As his assistant, I was honored to help Sanford write the prospectus that evening. The next morning the new school was announced. Almost half a century later it still exists.
(Some other stories about mentors: David Riesman, John U, Monro; and in my book, Enlarging Our Comfort Zones, Yosal Rogat)