Profile in courage.

• Position: EDITOR'S NOTE - Obituary

'I AM A MAN who has always needed heroes." Nike Chairman Phil Knight said that at the memorial service held in January for Penn States longtime football coach, Joe Paterno.

Like Phil Knight, I think we all need heroes to look up to and admire--for their accomplishments, their courage, their character, and other qualities that are worthy of emulating. Even corporate governance needs its heroes.

It is rare that we get to celebrate, or even talk about, heroism in governance. As with so much else that happens in the boardroom, acts of courage stay within this "sealed chamber" (a phrase used by Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta in an article he wrote for Directors & Boards about his time as a corporate director).

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That's why I seized the opportunity to give a special tribute to John Smale in this edition. To my mind, and I am not alone in this sentiment, John was a hero of corporate governance.

He took the initiative to coalesce his fellow General Motors board members around the need for regime change at this pillar of corporate America. Remember, this was done in early days of board activism. In 1992 a Fortune 100 board just did not precipitously toss out its CEO. He then agreed to step up to the role of non-executive chairman, taking on immense responsibilities for shepherding with the board and executive team a turnaround at this industrial behemoth.

And that wasn't all. His next action step in the automaker's revival--and this was of historical moment--was to craft with the board and top management a set of guidelines for the role of the GM board and how it was to function. What was awesome at the time (this was in 1994) is that this initiative produced a written, and totally...