PERSPECTIVE FROM THE 19^TH HOLE: This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus use an image from my favorite sport, golf. Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all of my professional positions, including as a Congressional press secretary in Washington, D.C., an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and a private sector lobbyist. This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.

I recently wrote a blog about great quotes, but missed one that stands out.

It is this:

“There is no end to the good you can do if you don’t care who gets the credit.”

It was a phrase uttered by General Colin Powell at about the time he decided not to run for president as he “bemoaned the loss of civility in politics.”

Civility would produce the kind of “you don’t care who gets the credit” attitude typical of Powell. He came across as a public official who wasn’t interested in credit, even though he did a lot of good work over his years in the military.

In that way, he stands as a huge contrast to the current occupant of the White House, a man who wants to get credit for everything, no matter whether he deserves it or not. To Donald Trump, credit is what matters, not the act of doing good.

Powell’s quote also mimics the style of a governor for whom I worked many years ago in Oregon – the late Victor Atiyeh. He also was not interested in taking or getting credit; he wanted, first and foremost, to do a good job for all Oregonians.

As the years have missed since Atiyeh’s eight years in the Governor’s Office, his reputation has done nothing but gone up. That is the case for many Republicans who are members of his party, as well as for many Democrats who didn’t share party labels, but appreciated his down-to-earth, open style.

You could actually talk to this governor when you saw him walking down of the Capitol, which he loved.

Nowhere was this “do good work style” more evident that in the serious leadership Atiyeh displayed in opposing the invasion of the Rajneesh cult in Eastern Oregon. Recent media coverage of that episode in the 1980s shed at least a little light on the quiet, resourceful leadership Atiyeh displayed to control a vicious, criminal-minded cult.

It was my pleasure to serve in the Atiyeh Administration and to get to know first-hand this great Oregonian for whom getting credit was not the highest goal. Sharing credit, as in the case of General Powell, was the motivation.