Jay Hair leaves legacy of leadership

Last Friday, the nation and world lost a strong advocate for natural resource and environmental protection when Jay Hair left this earth -- an earth he had dedicated his life to improving. There are few people about whom it can truly be said that the world is a better place because he lived in it. Jay is one of those.

Under Jay's 14 years of stewardship, the National Wildlife Federation became our country's largest environmental membership organization. He was also president of the World Conservation Union, the world's leading institution for international conservation organizations. In 1995 Jay left the NWF and moved here with his wife, Leah, a Seattle native. While here, he served as an independent adviser to James Wolfensohn, president of The World Bank. Despite being a citizen of the world, he and Leah spent his last days in Seattle fighting the cancer that for five years had wracked his body but not his spirit.

We should honor Jay's legacy by trying to learn from the qualities of leadership he possessed. What caused so many to recognize leadership qualities in Jay and move him to the front of their cherished organizations?

Jay grew up in a small farming community in southern Indiana and gained degrees in biology and zoology from Clemson University in South Carolina and a Ph.D. in zoology from the University of Alberta, Canada. In the early '70s, he became a commissioned officer in Vietnam. Jay was well-raised and well-educated, but so have been many others who did not become leaders.

It was his qualities that attracted so many to follow Jay. He was a man of great intelligence, energy, determination, courage and probably most important, good humor.

I was at Weyerhaeuser in the late '70s when Jay came calling, challenging our company to form a partnership with his organization. He had made similar challenges to companies in other industries. We all joined up. Jay's pioneering effort resulted in the creation of the Corporate Council of the National Wildlife Federation. At Jay's prodding, we engaged in projects to show other members of industry that sound business practices and environmental protection need not be antagonistic to one another. This was an intelligent but novel idea in the early '80s.

We all follow leaders who display great energy and determination. Once Jay believed a course of action was advisable, he was cyclonic in pursuing his chosen path. When the Reagan administration took office in 1981, Jay, like many of his fellow environmentalists, became unhappy with the stewardship of James Watt at the Department of Interior. He let the president and anyone else who would listen know exactly what he thought.

Once in 1983 -- to the president, in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, and later on the White House lawn before the ever-eager press corps -- Jay expressed his strong belief that a new leader would improve the Interior Department. That this result ultimately transpired was in no small part due to Jay's belief that it should.

You may disagree with what happened, but leaders don't always search for consensus; often they are after more immediate results. Ironically, the president Jay confronted taught us that lesson himself.

Courage is not always seeking to lead an already marching parade but in starting a parade of your own even though your colleagues may decry or misunderstand your actions. One such action by Jay involved me. When President Reagan asked me to follow Anne Buford as Environmental Protection Agency administrator, the national environmental community, whipped to a froth by what it considered the administration's misguided environmental policies, decided as a group to oppose my nomination. Not Jay. Without telling me his intentions, he marched into the Senate hearing and endorsed my nomination without reservation. I told Jay afterward that I admired his courage but questioned his wisdom.

Lest anyone misunderstand what Jay was all about, his most impressive human trait was his unfailing good humor.

Some will ask what does that have to do with leadership? Jay recognized we live in a complicated world and that people often honestly and with conviction pursued beliefs contrary to his own; he was able to accept that. His ability to laugh at himself and prick the balloon of others who became too pompous in their certainty made him a joy to be around. He was a serious man, but he never took himself or his cause too seriously. Jay dedicated his life to a cause that transcended his immediate self-interest.

He was a good and constant friend, and I will miss him. All of us will miss him -- even those who knew nothing of his contribution to the betterment of their lives. As he leaves us, we need to learn from his life and the qualities of his leadership that inspired countless others and allowed him to advance the core of his beliefs.

True leaders, dedicated to causes that better us humans and the natural world we share, are rare indeed. Jay Hair's life and person leave us a blueprint for what leadership is all about. It is now up to those of us who remain to live up to his example.

William D. Ruckelshaus, a director of the Madrona Venture Group in Seattle, served twice as EPA administrator.

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