thing special. He has an easy manner with people, yet manages to remain what he is: a product of Hotchkiss and Yak, a man of wealth and parts. He might tolerate familiarity but permits himself none. However much Secreta y of State Christian Herter tried to yet his

I young assistant on a

association in 1959, Scranton kept

right on addressing himas "sir. " people feel

his personal interest in them, an interest made convincing

by a phenomenal memory and a sleepless sense of humor,iet he has no intimate friends; an inbred reserve

1 keeps him from being really close to anyone except his wife Mary, a woman of warmth and perception.

William Warren Scranton was 1 born July 19,1917, in Madison,

~onnecticut, the youngest child and onlv son of Marion Mareerv " J

(Warren) Scranton and Worthing- s the third generation president of the mnany, and his mother-known in

&si a id the Grand Old Dame of the is courtly, not supercilious. He is a Grand Old Party-was the first woman to serve as vice chairman good conversationalist, but not loquacious or self-aggrandizing. He is as graceful as he is gracious. His recall of the people and the places and the events in his life is

of the ~ackaw&a County Republican Committee and later as vice chairman of the Republican National Committee. Bill Scranton's sisters, Marion ("Em"), Katherine ("Kay"), and Sara ("Sally"), of whom he speaks with quiet devotion, all attended Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts.

A graduate of Yale University and its law school, he eventual- ly returned to Scranton, where he threw himself into work revitalizing moribund companies. In 1941, he married Mary Lowe Chamberlin, who had been a year behind him at Scranton Country Day. Like Scranton's sisters, she was also a graduate of Smith College. The Scrantons are the parents of four children, Susan, William Worthington, Joseph Curtis, and Peter Kip. William W. Scranton I11 served as lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania from 1979 to 1987.

phenomenal. In the best of northeastern Pennsylvania's

vernacular, he is a Class Act -and in a class by himself. A description of the man who served as governor of the

Keystone State from 1963 to 1967 by Richard Austin Smith, which appeared in the February 1964 edition of Fortune magazine has stood the test of time. Written early in Scranton's foray into public and political life, it remains an accurate portrayal.

INTERVIEW WITH

~VLLIAM W. CRANTON

v .4 . ,= s,". QZ,

year, he ventured into the political ring by running for to the ~ e ~ & l Assembly of Pennsylvania on January 3, Congress. Next in his sights was Pennsylvania's 1967, in which he enumerated what he believedwere gov&norship.

Winning the Keystone State's gubernatorial contest by nearly a half million votes (2,424,518 to 1,938,627) over Richardson Dilworth (1898-1974), who had resigned as mayor of Philadelphia to run, he carried sixty of Pennsylvania's sixty-seven counties. Beginning with his inaugural address on January 15,1963, Scranton received favorable reviews by both the state and national press. Business leaders and industrial

the "striking achievements" of his adtninistration. Among his legacies were the creation of the first college loan program in the Commonwealth's history; an increase of financial support to public schools by more than fifty percent; the reduction of the welfare rolls by more than one htindred thousand; theorgani- zation of a comprehensive conservation program, including enacting strip mining regulations, and. clean streams and coal mink subsidence laws; the doubling

developers grew enthusiastic, seeing him as the individual best suited to bring Pennsylvania up from its economic slump fomented by the decline in the Common- wealth's railroad, coal, and steel fortunes. Early on, a writer for the New Republic christened him "The First of the Kennedy Republicans." His debut as governor was among the most -

promising-and welcome-that twentieth-century Pennsylvanians had ever witnessed.

Governor Scranton was quick to *

attack the many problems facing

of the number of state employees protected by civil-service; and die realization of four balanced budgets, with t h e e year-end surpluses.

He kstd looked forward to retumihg t& ndrtheasiern vania to devote more tun family, business interests and charitable causes. But ington, D.C. called. And theftit 1 called again.

Fellowships. For his participation and contributions, he was accorded accolade upon accolade.

One of Scranton's most significant assignments was his appointment as United States Ambassador to the United Nations by President Gerald R. Ford, his Yale University classmate. Scranton's speeches of the period are among the most thoughtful and eloquent commen- taries on human rights.

Although he shies away from awards and honors, preferring his work to speak for itself, William W. Scranton did accept the third annual Pennsylvania Founder's Award presented by Governor Tom Ridge in Harrisburg on Wednesday, June 7,2000. (Previous recipients are K. Leroy Irvis, in 1998, and Fred Rogers, in 1999.) "It is difficult to imagine a more deserv- ing recipient," said Governor Ridge. "Governor Scranton has spent his life in public service to Pennsylvania, to the United States, and to the world." The award was established by the Pennsylva- nia Historical and Museum Commission to commemorate the ideals of Pennsyl- vania's founder, William Perm, whose enduring legacy included the principles of individual rights, religious toleration, representative government, and public support for education and free enter- prise.

This interview with Governor Scranton was conducted at the

Scranton Family Office in Scranton, Lackawanna County, on Friday, May

Was there a defining moment when you decided to enter public service?

I had no intention whatsoever of entering public service at all-and as far as running for election is concerned, it never occurred to me, to be honest. When I was asked to run for Congress in 1960, Mary and I talked about it all night because there was a time limit. I talked to Mother the next morning because she was the politician in the family. She said, "Bill, don't do that." She was very much opposed to my running. Nobody will believe it, but it's true. Mother died that year, and I don't know exactly why she was so opposed to it.

Your mother, Marion Margery Scranton, was an astute politician and many believe she had been grooming you for public life.

Everybody thinks she groomed me to run. I'm afraid that's bunk. She did take me around to events and things, but I think that was primarily because Mother had a very, very strong feeling that she wanted to do a lot of public work-and she sure did. She never wanted to give up her family. She had an enormous impact on all of us, and was always there when we needed her. The stories about her are incredible. Mother was one of the first women to do a number of things. She was one of the first women to drive a car. Although she later had a chauffeur, that car went ninety-five thousand miles a year in her busy years.

Mother was all over the Common- wealth all the time, primarily because she

was so interested in, first, trying to get women

L into politics and, second, legislation that would

F be helpful to women.

Bill and M a y Scranton with three of tkeir four children (from left): Peter, William, and Joseph. (Missing is their eldest child, Susan.)

She was not a rabid feminist, though. In 1900, at sixteen years old, she wanted to go to Harrisburg to picket the state legislature for women's suffrage. Her father, who was a very good lawyer, let her go. This was during the day when no young girl went anywhere without a chaperone.

She did everything she could, when she had time, to get women's suffrage, until it became a reality in 1920. Then she helped organize the Pennsylvania Council of Republican Women, which is the first women's political organization. She kept right on going. She eventually became vice chairman of the Republican National Committee, and she traveled all over the country. Then, in 1951, she decided she had to get out. She had been there long enough i d so she left-she never did another thing politically. When she quit politics, she destroyed all of the files, the pictures, the documents, the correspondence, everything. The only thing we have left of my mother's political career is a line-a-day diary, which is one of those five-year diaries where you have just about five or six lines for each day. Sadly, that's all we have.

Do you think it was difficult for your mother to close the door on her public life?

I don't think so. Mother was amazing. She was extraordinarily flexible. If Mother had made up her mind to do something, she did it. If something else was interfering with her plans, she handled it. She was very good about her life. She didn't expect everything to work out perfectly. She was really+,a very

iteresting person. ~veryone always thought that

she was sort of the commander of the family. She was quite a presence and she'd come into a room and everybody knew she was there, that kind of thing. She not only had a terrific public

presence, but also a great public Following. When Father died,

Mother never had a day of happiness again. Both

Mother and Dad did a {ery good job of bring- ing up their children-at least we thought they lid. We were devoted to

our parents, and they to us. If there was ever a real problem about something, Mother and Dad talked about it up in their room, at night after dinner. We knew how important he was in her life, but the public never did. Father was an enormous influence in her life, but very quiet, and quite firm.

Was your father as great of an influence on you and your sisters?

Much the same way as Mother. Dad was terrific. He was marvelous to all of us and we loved him very much. If we were doing wrong, Mother normally was the disciplinarian, but if there was something really important, he was right there and he handled it, quietly, lovingly. He handled himself very well as a father.

Was it hard for you to return to Pennsylvania, after having been away at school?

Oh no, no, it was not at all. As a family we were so deeply entrenched in Pennsylvania. We all-Mother and Dad, as well as my grandfather and grand- mother~cared deeply about our community and about our state. For me, returning home was easy.

I had graduated from Yale and was offered a job at J.P. Morgan. Dad thought I ought to take it up because he was very excited about the Morgan outfit, after he had had some dealings with them. I wanted to come back and be just a normal character living in Pennsylvania. My wife came from here, so she was certainly happy, as her roots were all here.

Did you feel a sense of responsibility being a Scranton in a community bearing your family name?

We were fully infused with the necessity of being responsible. Mother and Dad were acutely aware of such responsibility and filled us full of that. You did your work. They made me, as I'm sure they did my sisters, go out and collect for the Community Chest and that sort of thing. One day Mother told me to go around the block and make sure everybody was registered to vote. This was at the time of the Lindbergh kidnap- ping. Needless to say, they were somewhat worried about that, but they never showed us. She did say, "Remem- ber, don't talk to strangers." I went around and was knocking on every door and making sure that they all were registered. When I came back, she asked, "How did you do?" I said, "I don't know. I talked to all of them and I think they'll register, all right. But, Mother, is Mrs. Moffitt a stranger?"

Ours was a wonderful life-but it was a hard period of time for many. My family was terriblv worried about the Great Depression and what it was doing to the nation and the people. We were always aware of what &asgoing on in the world, and also participated in it as much as we could. Our parents had great foresight. We weren't locked up in a palace and told that we were different. There was none of

lic

I had been involved in several businesses here, in Scranton, mostly trying to get them back on track. I'll never forget that because there's nothing more important to me than having other people have jobs. Anyway, I just finished one of those stints, five years with a company, the International Textbook Company, and we'd gotten it turned around. I was now involved in too many other things and didn't think I was paying enough attention to the company and I thought I should get out, and I did. I was starting to run a broadcasting company and a trust company when all of a sudden I took a call from a man in Washington, Ambas- sador Philip Crowe, who said that Secretary of State John Foster Dulles wanted him to come up and see me.

I was asked to come to Washington, and then I was offered a position with a rather peculiar title, the Special Assistant to the Secretary of State for the Interpre- tive Press. That meant working with columnists and the people who ran the network news and all that kind of thing.

I never did actually work for John Foster Dulles, though. Mary and I were about to take a trio abroad, because it was the first time we were free to do so. Halfway around the world I received an "eyes only" message from Dr. Dulles that he was resigning, that he had cancer. He wrote that he would recommend me to his successor. I promptly wired back and asked him not to because I didn't want anybody to feel indebted to me.

His successor turned out to be Christian Herter, who Mother knew quite well. Chris got a message to me in Paris asking me to come and see him as soon as

I returned, which I did, and he offered me the job and I took it. I learned a lot. I only did that for a couple of months and then he brought me into his office and I ran his office, and that was absolutely wonderful. I learned more in that year than I ever have in my life. He was easy to work for. He told me, "You have to decide what of all this stuff that comes into this office I see and what I don't see." Then he added, "Any time you want to come to any meeting tha I'm having with anybody from any- where, you just come in and be there except for when my family and I to have a private talk." Nobody e had an offer like that.

That time was just super. It was a wonderful education. I went everywhere Chris went, and I had the responsibility not only of everything in that office, but also in the relationship with his office to the White House. So I was over there a lot. It was at the White House that I got to know Eisenhower.

I must admit it was very hard work. Day and night, every day except every other Sunday, but it was absolutely fascinating. It taught me a great deal.

Coming from the private sector, what was your impression of people in government

This may sound idealistic, but it my experience that the really good people in government were the people who really deeply cared about America. Sure, they cared about themselves, but they were real patriots. Ike was one of them. Another was Henry Kissinger. You don't think of him in those terms at all-he had a big e g o ~ b u t he was absolutely astounded that this country would, pardon my language, adopt a German Jew and make him secretary of state of the United States. Henry was motivated by the basic fact that this was an extraor- dinary country, which gave an extraordinary opportunity to an individ- ual who had not been born here or brought up here.

Did patriotism make a difference to you when you were seating your cabinet in Harrisburg?

I must be frank: for that cabinet in Harrisburg, I was primarily looking for two traits: total honesty and confidence.

"The closer you can get to the people and the less government you need,

generally speaking, the better "

vania. At the time Pennsylvania was-and had been for several years- the second worst in the nation in terms of unemployment. The Commonwealth h a really sick economy. For many years we had been totally dependent on railroads. steel, coal, then textiles, and the first th had declined miserably. Their decline v causing our he?-- --inemployment. -- from a district t had a lot of une ployment. (

I -

Penr was the worst i been for many y LuL

for was confidence turn this state around and get it going again. We did an interesting thing, too. J

wanted some younger people, in their thirties or forties, in the cabinet, and so set up a group of people to find such persons, particularly individuals who were already in business and might coi and lend le. 'ship. I think they fc

" much t( sixteen of tl election.

I wasn't were Republicans or anything of that SJ aise the standard but I did want them to be concerned anu responsible. If they weren't going to have You've been labeled everything, including a that kind of commitment and responsil pragmatist, a visionary, a moderate liberal, a

I wanted them. We did middle-of-the-road progressive, even a ^them to come and thev "Kennedy Republican." Do any of those

ell. descriptions fit?

" untry is doing well and going well.

less we have to do on a governmental basis, the better off 'we're going to be. Secondly, I am in the Lincoln tradition. If

ve a political hero, he's it. I've read an ctivful lot about Abraham Lincoln and I just think he's an extraordinary man indeed. Third and bmy no means least, I dc believe in the free enterprise system. I do believe in free trade for the betterment of people everywhere, including us in America. I think that's supposed I belief of the Republican Party, -- understand it.

On the other hand, I am not one who minks you can just allow difficult things to happen to people in America without taking some federal action. Neither the states nor the local government's are adequately supported financially to do everything, especially in the realms of health care and education.

Was there one specific program or initiative that you remember most?

Near the end of my four years as ivernor, I thought we had put Pennsyl-

urda in good enough shape, and that it was coming along all right. That maybe

e could do some dramatic things that would help in the future. Not just in the vresent. We came up with a five hundred

illion dollar program for a loan-for which I began to be called "the big -ender." About half of the money, tvn

mdred and fifty million dollars, we b used to purchase land and preserl

some of our lovely, beautiful state. Second, we could increase the develop-

ent of the state parks system. Maurice Goddard, who was then secretary of ^crests and Waters, and I got togethe"

id we came up with something of hich I'm very proud, I admit, but he

ueserves most of the credit, he did m--" of the work, which was to launch a

Â¥ogra that would create a stat1

Your presidential aspirations in 1964 have become the subject of much conjecture, much debate, and much discussion among historians, politicians, and government officials-not to mention the public. Is there a final word?

I don't think f

One of your greatest traits is your ability to work effectively with others, despite their differing political beliefs or backgrounds.

I happen to believe-and everybc

I becomi

in people and cultivati interest( you get the most out or mem. ments for a mm

some kind of DI Was it difficult to work with the power brokers called a and big business interests of the day?

No, they made it easier. Penns] had been through periods when tliL railroads and the steel corporations ar the coal companie: d been running But these industrieb were passe and they were experiencing terrible problems in unemg t.11 <tht ss people decided that something had to happen in Pennsylvania and they couldn't have been better about it.

Did you enjoy your stint as Uniteu 91,

Ambassador to United Nations?

It was wonderful. There w( ficult is:

hard work, bu marvelous.

I had worked o transition at the White House for twel weeks, and he kept asking me to come back to the government. I kept declining. I did, though, assure him that I might

Because I'n ifll relatipno

ui ti-

rent door-to-door, asking people foi lich was rarely done in

, ~ ~ - i g the gubernatorial ie climbed ladders to shake

s with painters and walked througl to talk with steelworkers. At one

, when WCAU romotion and tl er the count

was simply flummoxed when she You are the only twentietn-ce / governor . -. ~sked to milk the poor animal and in Pennsylvania to have been -.... sistently he replied, "Why certainly I will." Oh, called statesman I dip at, D it fit? she was just great' What most people

-U.dn't know was that Mary lived in the I see my woi lard ountry next door to a farm and she spent

me over there. She learned

à ‘ h e idee. .- . When the press fir;

when I became 5 :all me first lad! 11." "Well, so w

sorters asked. She s Lau me governess." She

vublic life beautifully. She I

Aary was the be

With the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission's chairman, James B. Stesenm (left), and its executive director, S.K. Stevens (right), Governor William W. Scmnton lays th cornerstone of the William Penn Memorial Museum Building, now The State Museum o f Pennsylvania.

I enjoyed my directorships because I haye always found something in every company that I thought I could work on, but in the eighties I announced that when I reached seventy I was going to step down from all of the boards. I strongly b e h e that young Americans ought to run America, and not old goats. That was all right with some of them, but others were quite upset about it, thought I didn't like the company or something. Now, thankfully, most of the corporations have done that, put in some kind of a term limitation.

You grew up srrounded by bright and astute women. Did you appoint a woman to your cabinet?

We had a female cabinet secretary. Our insurance commissioner was Audrey Kelly. She came from Susquehanna County. Audrey was a fine insurance commissioner. We really should have had , more women in my administration,

though.

Did you appoint anyminorities as cabinet secretaries?

We had a black who was the secretary of Labor and Industry, Bill Young, of Pittsburgh. He was an older man, and, oh, he was good. He was a graduate of

I ~colnkniversity and had been editor of the Pittsburgh American, an African American weekly. Bill was effective because he was forthright and direct. He was only the second African ~merican in

On WC -..- ;day, October 13, -- -5, four fc. ...- T go-. ..om of th. -.-ysto~. .tote joined Governor the history of the Commonwealth to serve Scranton for the dedication of the museum. They were (seated, from left): James H. ~ u f f (served as a cabinet secretary. 1947-1951) and Arthur H. James (served 1947-1951); and (standing, from left to %ht) Edward Martin (served 1943-1947), Scranton, and David L. Lawrence (served 1959-1963). Your decision to lea* politics, much like your

mother's, in the mid-1960s was resolute.

12 -

I was dead tired, and when I made that statement in sixty-six, after the primary was over, that I never would run again for anything, nobody believed it. But I meant it. I was in public service, and I thought that as a public servant, I ought to be out in the public all the time and visit people and try to work on these things. I was afraid that I wasn't being a good husband or a good father, and that was bothering me terribly. I was away all the time. I was constantly working and speaking and taking part in meetings. I just wasn't going have that any more. That's why I never again did run for anything.

Did you ever think of yourself at any given point as making history?

Whenever I took a job all I was interested in was not what I was doing historically, but really what we needed to accomplish at that particular time. For example, I finally ran for Congress, which I didn't want to do very much, because we had a congressman who was a very nice man, but he didn't do enough. We had terrible problems in the region, and before I ran I came up with a list of thirteen things that I thought a congressman could do to help. When I went on television, I listed them all on a blackboard.

Jack Kennedy, whom I knew quite well, was elected president the same year I went to congress. He gave a reception at the White House for congressional leaders in January. He walked into the Lincoln Room, came up behind me and put his hand on my elbow. I was talking to a group of congressmen when he flashed that famous Kennedy smile. "This is the political miracle of 1960," he said. I turned to him and said, "No, sir, Mr. President, you are."

Do you still enjoy politics?

I will never be uninterested. I enjoy being an observer, on the sidelines, so to speak. Yes, I am very interested. I've always been especially interested in the local economics and politics. I don't take any position, though, because that should belong to our young people.

Have you given thought to writing your memoirs?

I didn't want to do anything about it, but Mary and the children got after me and I finally wrote a small book, which I didn't enjoy at all, to be honest with you. I found it a bore, really. Anyway, I did write something and then I wrote thirty more stories and appended them to the piece. I gave a copy to all the children and

(. (. ng the entire ^Commonwealth in better shape than it had

been. I wanted to make a difference. "

had Golda Meir, m. As far as I was concerned, I was and Great Britain erested in getting the entire Common- Why don't we? alth in better shape than it had been. I

ted to make a difference. "fl" Have you ever given any thought to you'll be most remembered for?

No, I don't think that's import Michael J. O'Malley III, who joined the staff of

you're a president, I suppose it is, ania Historical and Museum

a governor I don't think it matter in 1978, has served as editor of

matters is the Commonwealth making ia Heritage since 1984. progress, not whether you did.

a much better Pennsylvania after I left and Yesterdav: The ~olerable ~ c c o m m o d ~ -

highway accidents, an strike. George Leader, wanted to be remembered did about mental health.

ance setup. We took more p w e l f a r ~ n e hundred and