News Releases
Office of Governor Gary Locke
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - December 2, 1998
Contact:  Governor's Communications Office, 360-902-4136

Gov. Locke remembers John Stanford and urges that others continue John's work

Gov. Gary Locke spoke today (Dec. 2) at two memorial services for John Stanford, Seattle Schools Superintendent, who died early Saturday morning of complications from leukemia.

Here are Locke's remarks:

"In the last few days, Mona and I have talked a lot about John Stanford. As a reporter at KING-TV, Mona covered his first day on the job as Superintendent. Both she and I attended many of the same events he did over the years. We admired him for all the same reasons everyone else here did. And both of us were profoundly saddened by his death.

In the past few days, we've been talking about what we learned from him. This is our list of lessons he taught us:

* Never underestimate the power of our own energy and enthusiasm.

- He used his energy and enthusiasm to silence the cynics, to raise the aspirations of students, teachers and parents, and to change the very nature of this community's relationship with its public schools.

- I'll never forget his appearance at a press conference last May where we announced our plan to hold a Youth Safety Summit. He had only recently completed a round of chemotherapy, yet there he was, back at work, as effective, outspoken and feisty as ever.

- It was that unstoppable energy that changed so much, so fast. The amount of sheer energy he expended in three years was phenomenal.

* Be fearlessly honest.

- John took on sacred-cow issues that others only whispered about. If he thought something should change, he said so. He lived his life telling it like it is – and by telling it like it is, he changed how it is.

* Expect the very best of everyone.

- High expectations were John's most powerful tool. He knew that when you expect more from children, they learn more. And he understood that when you expect more from adults, you bring out the best in them, too.

- He started by expecting the best from himself. He was an example of being the best that you can be. And that gave him enormous credibility with kids. He could say to them "You can be a doctor, or an astronaut, or anything else you want to be." And they would believe him. After all, here was an army general who became a county administrator – and a county administrator who became a school superintendent. He resisted and overcame every effort to pigeon-hole him. He was the living proof of his own message about the power of faith, hope and hard work. And this made him a wonderful role model for adults as well as children.

* Be accountable, and hold others accountable.

- John was tough. He was a disciplinarian who challenged kids and teachers to stand up straight and behave properly. But he understood that discipline is not the same thing as punishment. Discipline is a quality of mind – a determination to be the best we can be, and to keep getting better. That's what gave him the confidence to guarantee that kids would do better in school or he would give back part of his own salary.

* Love everybody, and don't be afraid to talk about it.

- School superintendents and generals don't usually go around talking about love, but John did. His message to kids was "Read, learn and be good to each other." His message to all of us was to love our children, and everybody else's children, too.

- The measure of John Stanford's legacy will be how well we learned these lessons from him.

He was an important role model for me. He said so many things that I've taken to heart, and that guide my efforts to do what's right for our children, our teachers and our schools.

Mona and I were both very moved by the letter from John's family that was published in last Sunday's paper. They said that, "the true measure of a leader is how the troops carry on when their leader is gone."

And they said, "as you remember the dreamer, please remember his dream."

We see a family trait here: Like John, his family is calling on all of us to be accountable . . . to honor him by following his example . . . and to live out his legacy by living up to the high standards he set for us.

We are all humbled by this challenge.

We will always be grateful that John Stanford was part of our lives and our community.

And we will all remember his dream, and do our best to make it come true.

But we will miss the dreamer more than we can ever say.

Thank you very much.

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