Ethics, self-interest, and the public good - Page 6

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Ethics, Self- Interest, and the Public Good
that it boggles the minds of those who know about it. ( Even now, after retirement
from leading the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation, Tom Lambeth is still regularly
driving all across North Carolina to attend meetings and give speeches. It is almost
impossible to go anywhere in North Carolina that he has not recently been seen!)
Tom has long been an inspiration to all who know him, an inspiring, even if unwit-ting,
challenge to all his friends to try to measure up in our own lives and involve-ments
to the basic human goodness as well as the highest professional standards
he has set— and lived!— throughout his own. He loves to quote Robert E. Lee’s
admonition that “ Duty is the most sublime word in the English language,” and
Tom’s life is a testament to his obedience to duty. No one could possibly be more
aptly honored by a lectureship of any kind, much less one on public policy and the
public good than Tom Lambeth!
Tom and I have grown to be the closest of friends since we first met as stu-dents
at Chapel Hill 54, yes 54!, years ago. As Tom will insist on telling you, I am
older than he is, but he never shows me the deference deserved by one’s elders.
He justifies his lack of awe by hastening to add that I am only 9 months older so,
being less than a year older, it doesn’t count for much.
It was Norwood Bryan to whom I owe the blessing of Tom’s friendship, and
I will never cease thanking him for bringing Tom and me together. Norwood and I
had been good friends from kindergarten days together in Fayetteville, and, when
he followed me to Chapel Hill— no causation intended!— to become Tom’s class-mate,
Norwood and I were in regular touch. I won’t ever forget the fateful day
Norwood informed me, with intensity and great excitement, that he had met “ the
most impressive guy in the world of political knowledge” he had ever come across.
And at the ripe old age of 18. He may even have termed Tom a “ young genius,”
too, but my memory is uncertain on the latter point. All of us were Frank Porter
Graham fans— I will come back to Dr. Frank later— and Norwood informed me
that Tom Lambeth was so impressive that he could recite from memory the county-by-
county election returns in the 1950 U. S. Senate campaign in which Willis Smith