Wednesday, June 12, 2002
Bob Kerrey speaks; memories of Benjamin Ward
LOOKING AHEAD by Wally Dobelis
Bob Kerrey, the President of New School University, at 58 has lived many lives. At 25, as a young idealistic University of Nebraska ROTC member who had volunteered for the Navy SEALs, following a family military, he was exposed to the horrors of Vietnam. In his first fire fight at Thanh Phong civilian women and children died in a crossfire, as he rememers it. In his second battle he lost a leg.
Kerrey has written a memoir, "When I Was a Young Man," (A James H. Silberman book, Hartcort, Inc, NY May 2002) using the Burl Ives guilt-ridden line as the title. This relates, sadly, to the dispute about the battle that...Kerrey was subsequently awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, which he considered rejecting but eventually accepted, and eventually became the only living member of Congress to carry that distinction.
Kerry's post-Vietnam career was truly distinguished. The young pharmacist built a chain of successful restaurants and health clubs, was elected Governor of Nebraska, Senator and now leads the distinguished New School University, renowned for the talents of European refugees who set the standard for its scholarship.
In a Barnes and Noble reading on June 12, the former Nvy frogman spoke of the clueless young men caught in a war that brought this country little honor. His book was not meant to be about the horrors of the war, it started with a search about the life of his uncle, who died in WWII, and expanded into xx
We note, sadly, the death of Benjamin Ward, New York's first black Police Commissioner ((1983-89), at the age of 75, on June 10, 2002. Our paths crossed on many occasions, particularly after Mayor Koch's Advisory Committee on Police Management and Personnel Policy, chaired by John E. Zuccotti, recommended that the Police Academy on East 20th Street be upgraded and moved to better premises. A Committee To Save the Police Academy formed, to keep the PA on East 20th Street, both for economic reasons (the PA was then less than 20 years old) and for the protection of the neighborhood, then much threatened by the concentration of methadone clinics, shelters for the hardcore homeless, hospitals ("Bedpan Alley"), drug trade and a high crime rate brought on by the throngs of transients. Commissioner Ward was much in favor of the proposal, and we had at least two spirited encounters in hearings of the City Council, and a discussion in the hallways that convinced me of the seriousness of his effort. The CSPA argument for a cost benefit analysis before a $400 million expenditure did carry some weight; however the proposed move to the Bronx was really subsequently defeated for economic reasons, and the PA has survived, playing an important role as the Mayor's headquarters during the weeks after 9/11.
Ben Ward, son of a Brooklyn cleaning lady (he spoke Yiddish), graduated from Automotive Trades HS, was an Army military police officer and a truck driver before the took the police test in 1951. After seven years of slogging and discrimination as a beat patrolman he decided that only further schooling wold advance him, and earned associate, bachelor and law degrees from CCNY (Brooklyn College), took exams and advanced ro the rank of Deputy Commissioner for Public Affairs. We met, as remembered by the Old Curmudgeon, another night law school grad who advanced in private enterprise, on several occasions in Max's Kansas City, the legendary artists' bar on Park Avenue South near of 17th Street, where the Commissioner dropped in as part of his visits to hearings of the Civilian Review Board, across the street.
After an appointment to the office of State Commissioner for Correctional Services,in 1975,, where he addressed the problems that had led to the Attica prison revolt in 1971. Three years later he came back to the PD, and aws appointed chief of the 1,700 member Housing Authority police, and in 1979 Mayor Edward I Koch appointed him as Commissioner Of Corrections, the highest-ranking black official in NYC government
The appoinment as Police Commissioner came in 1983. Ward, a dedicated crime fighter, initiated the campaign against "quality of life" crimes that came to real fruition two Mayors later. He was successful and and did not hesitate to both attack the police excesses affecting the black community and make peace with the community on behalf of his department.
Ward's uprightness was acompanied by a disarming candor and a sense of humor rarely exhibited by lawmen. He retired in 1989 because of a lifelong asthma, also citing the stress, a good pension and the seeming cyclical occurrence of police scandal every 20 years as the reasons. The last scandal was in 1966, and he feared one was due [In 1994 the Mollen Commission gently hinted that the PD under Ward and his two successors "was more likely to minimize or conceal corruption than uncover and uproot it."].
His post-retirement career included service on a corporate, humanitarian and professional organization boards. The family had a house on Copake Lake in Columbia County, and we would see them and exchange friendly nods of recognition in Hillsdale House, a local dining spot. Luckily for me, I was a remembered face, rather than a past adversary, and I made sure not to bring up past controversies.
Bob Kerrey, the President of New School University, at 58 has lived many lives. At 25, as a young idealistic University of Nebraska ROTC member who had volunteered for the Navy SEALs, following a family military, he was exposed to the horrors of Vietnam. In his first fire fight at Thanh Phong civilian women and children died in a crossfire, as he rememers it. In his second battle he lost a leg.
Kerrey has written a memoir, "When I Was a Young Man," (A James H. Silberman book, Hartcort, Inc, NY May 2002) using the Burl Ives guilt-ridden line as the title. This relates, sadly, to the dispute about the battle that...Kerrey was subsequently awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, which he considered rejecting but eventually accepted, and eventually became the only living member of Congress to carry that distinction.
Kerry's post-Vietnam career was truly distinguished. The young pharmacist built a chain of successful restaurants and health clubs, was elected Governor of Nebraska, Senator and now leads the distinguished New School University, renowned for the talents of European refugees who set the standard for its scholarship.
In a Barnes and Noble reading on June 12, the former Nvy frogman spoke of the clueless young men caught in a war that brought this country little honor. His book was not meant to be about the horrors of the war, it started with a search about the life of his uncle, who died in WWII, and expanded into xx
We note, sadly, the death of Benjamin Ward, New York's first black Police Commissioner ((1983-89), at the age of 75, on June 10, 2002. Our paths crossed on many occasions, particularly after Mayor Koch's Advisory Committee on Police Management and Personnel Policy, chaired by John E. Zuccotti, recommended that the Police Academy on East 20th Street be upgraded and moved to better premises. A Committee To Save the Police Academy formed, to keep the PA on East 20th Street, both for economic reasons (the PA was then less than 20 years old) and for the protection of the neighborhood, then much threatened by the concentration of methadone clinics, shelters for the hardcore homeless, hospitals ("Bedpan Alley"), drug trade and a high crime rate brought on by the throngs of transients. Commissioner Ward was much in favor of the proposal, and we had at least two spirited encounters in hearings of the City Council, and a discussion in the hallways that convinced me of the seriousness of his effort. The CSPA argument for a cost benefit analysis before a $400 million expenditure did carry some weight; however the proposed move to the Bronx was really subsequently defeated for economic reasons, and the PA has survived, playing an important role as the Mayor's headquarters during the weeks after 9/11.
Ben Ward, son of a Brooklyn cleaning lady (he spoke Yiddish), graduated from Automotive Trades HS, was an Army military police officer and a truck driver before the took the police test in 1951. After seven years of slogging and discrimination as a beat patrolman he decided that only further schooling wold advance him, and earned associate, bachelor and law degrees from CCNY (Brooklyn College), took exams and advanced ro the rank of Deputy Commissioner for Public Affairs. We met, as remembered by the Old Curmudgeon, another night law school grad who advanced in private enterprise, on several occasions in Max's Kansas City, the legendary artists' bar on Park Avenue South near of 17th Street, where the Commissioner dropped in as part of his visits to hearings of the Civilian Review Board, across the street.
After an appointment to the office of State Commissioner for Correctional Services,in 1975,, where he addressed the problems that had led to the Attica prison revolt in 1971. Three years later he came back to the PD, and aws appointed chief of the 1,700 member Housing Authority police, and in 1979 Mayor Edward I Koch appointed him as Commissioner Of Corrections, the highest-ranking black official in NYC government
The appoinment as Police Commissioner came in 1983. Ward, a dedicated crime fighter, initiated the campaign against "quality of life" crimes that came to real fruition two Mayors later. He was successful and and did not hesitate to both attack the police excesses affecting the black community and make peace with the community on behalf of his department.
Ward's uprightness was acompanied by a disarming candor and a sense of humor rarely exhibited by lawmen. He retired in 1989 because of a lifelong asthma, also citing the stress, a good pension and the seeming cyclical occurrence of police scandal every 20 years as the reasons. The last scandal was in 1966, and he feared one was due [In 1994 the Mollen Commission gently hinted that the PD under Ward and his two successors "was more likely to minimize or conceal corruption than uncover and uproot it."].
His post-retirement career included service on a corporate, humanitarian and professional organization boards. The family had a house on Copake Lake in Columbia County, and we would see them and exchange friendly nods of recognition in Hillsdale House, a local dining spot. Luckily for me, I was a remembered face, rather than a past adversary, and I made sure not to bring up past controversies.
# posted by Wally Dobelis @ 4:11 PM 
