Remembering Donald C. Stone

AuthorHarvey L. White
DOIhttp://doi.org/10.1111/puar.12256
Date01 September 2014
Published date01 September 2014
Perspective
Harvey L. White is professor at the
University of Pittsburgh and visiting
scholar at the University of Delaware. He
is past president of the American Society
for Public Administration, fellow of the
National Academy of Public Administration,
and founding chair of the Consortium for
International Management, Policy, and
Development.
E-mail: hlw@pitt.edu
Remembering Donald C. Stone 559
Public Administration Review,
Vol. 74, Iss. 5, pp. 559–560. © 2014 by
The American Society for Public Administration.
DOI: 10.1111/puar.12256.
Harvey L. White
University of Pittsburgh
Much has been written about Donald C.
Stone and his profound and lasting inf‌l u-
ence on the professionalization of public
administration. He has been described as a consum-
mate administrator, a visionary, a champion for public
service, a public citizen, and an internationalist, an
optimist, an innovator, an excellent teacher, and an
inspirational leader,1 as well as a devoted partner to his
wife Alice and a loving father to their four children—
“the nearest thing to an all-round Renaissance
man to be produced by the public administration
community.2
I saw the truth of these characterizations very early
during my tenure in the Graduate School of Public
and International Af‌f airs (GSPIA) at the University
of Pittsburgh, when I made an unannounced visit to
his of‌f‌i ce to introduce myself. He had already retired
as our founding dean and relocated the Coalition to
Improve Management in State and Local Government
to Carnegie Mellon University. To my surprise,
Stone knew who I was, had expected my visit, men-
tioned my recent publication on intergovernmental
relations, knew of my work with the Section on
Intergovernmental Administration and Management
of the American Society for Public Administration
(ASPA), and already had plans to involve me in his
work. He was always prepared, and he expected others
to be equally prepared. He also always made time
to give guidance to those of us who were new to the
profession.
His instinct for talent and persuasion allowed him to
attract the best practitioners and scholars to work with
him. As Chester Newland observed, “People with dis-
cipline, expertise, and professionalism were sought out
by Don Stone.”3 He inspired, trained, managed, and
led nearly f‌i ve generations of public administrators.
In seven decades of def‌i ning, establishing, developing,
ref‌i ning, and promoting public administration, Dean
Stone championed the development of six professional
associations and resurrected several others. He was a
founding member of ASPA, the National Academy of
Public Administration, the Society for International
Development, the International Association of
Schools and Institutes of Administration (IASIA),
and the American Public Works Association (APWA).
He also helped revitalize the International Institute
of Administrative Sciences after World War II. ASPA,
IASIA, and APWA all have awards named in his
honor.
Donald Stone pioneered the intricate linkage between
domestic and international af‌f airs that has become
a standard attribute of current public administra-
tion praxis. Even though his early academic interest
in international relations was temporarily eclipsed
by invitations to pursue a master of science degree
in public administration at Syracuse University
and subsequently serve as assistant city manager in
Cincinnati, Ohio, it was never extinguished. It resur-
faced during his tenure as research director for the
International City Management Association and con-
tinued to be ref‌l ected in his work as executive director
of the Public Administration Service. For nine years
as assistant director of the Bureau of the Budget, he
used research from other countries to help the agency
improve organization, management, and methods
in the U.S. federal government.  e international
activities branch that he created in his Administrative
Management Division to study developments in inter-
national organizations proved very useful during his
planning for the U.S. government’s war organization
and postwar readjustment. He found reports on Great
Britain’s ef‌f ort particularly useful.
Donald Stone’s career at the federal level spanned
the Great Depression and World War II, when he
helped shape domestic and foreign policy under both
the Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman
administrations. He assisted the State Department
with formatting procedures for the Public Works
Administration and planning and implementing the
Works Progress Administration. Stone helped draft the
original charters of the United Nations and the United
Remembering Donald C. Stone

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