The call from the White House came on a Friday to attend a special briefing in the Situation Room the next day, Saturday, 3 June 1967. The U.S. President had assembled the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Secretaries of Defense and State, other White House officials, and the class of 18 White House Fellows. The briefing was about a powder keg about to explode involving Israel and surrounding Arab nations. A teletype machine chattered in the background as officials explained the likelihood of war and its impact on the U.S. As predicted, what became known as the Six-Day War began on Monday, 5 June 1967. That teletype was the first direct communication link established between Moscow and Washington and was credited with keeping the superpowers out of the conflict.
Walt Humann was part of that 1967 White House Fellows class. He is the former chair of the executive committee of Hunt Consolidated, former chair of the Supervisory Board of Memorex-Telex, and a long-time YPO member. He has led two simultaneously successful careers – one in business and the other in public service. Humann will tell you that his experience as a White House Fellow changed the trajectory of his life and provided the leadership skills that have served him well in both of his careers.
The White House Fellows is the nation’s premier program for leadership and public service. It is nonpartisan and has been supported by every president since its inception. Each Fellow spends a year in Washington, D.C., working in a paid, full-time position as assistant to the president, vice president or a cabinet official. Fellows also meet with national leaders from the private and public sectors.
The 800 Fellows include former Secretary of State Colin Powell, biographer Doris Kearns Goodwin, and CNN’s Dr. Sunjay Gupta. Former Fellows who are YPO members include George Weathersby, YPO CEO-Emeritus, Tom Johnson, former CNN President, and Tom Leppert, former Turner Construction CEO and mayor of Dallas.
Servant leadership meets civic engagement
Now 82, Humann was 29 when he was selected to be part of the Fellows program while employed at LTV in Dallas (and while running a family business and attending night law school). Humann says participating as a White House Fellow showed him the critical need for servant leadership in civic engagement. During that year, he traveled the nation with government officials, learning the challenges facing the country. This experience taught him empathy, understanding and a resolve to help solve problems.
Humann says that the Fellows program also gave him the tools to lead and enact change, both in his business and civic lives. He learned the value of networking, bringing together people from different backgrounds and life experiences to solve big problems.
During his Fellow year, Humann, a graduate of MIT, Harvard Business School, and Southern Methodist University Law School, was part of a team that recommended that the U.S. Post Office should run like a business as a public corporation. “At the time, the post office was micro-managed by numerous congressional committees on decisions big and small. We recommended that politics should be removed from its operational structure. Our findings were ultimately approved by the president, but not initially by Congress,” says Humann.
Re-entering the business sector
In 1968, Humann returned to his job at LTV and eventually became the company’s youngest elected officer. One day, while reflecting on lessons learned as a Fellow, he realized that Congress was never going to approve the post office becoming a public corporation without pressure from the American people. So, he founded and was the national chairman of the Citizens for the Postal Corporation (CIPCO) and recruited the chairs of the Republican and Democratic parties as honorary co-chairs. CIPCO gained nationwide publicity and received financial support from the public. In 1971, Congress and the new president approved the conversion of the old Post Office Department into the United States Postal Service — at that time the largest governmental reorganization in history.
The power of collaboration to aid public education
Humann learned through the Fellows program the importance of volunteering to solve tough problems. “You can’t assume others will always step up. You must volunteer. The leader must define the problem, articulate the vision, do the homework, and then develop a consensus plan. You achieve success not alone, but when you bring various groups of people together,” he says.
— Walt Humann, Former Chair of the Executive Committee, Hunt Consolidated share
He has applied these principles while creating and leading important projects that have significantly impacted the civic, social and business communities of North Texas. Humann created the multi-racial Dallas Alliance, composed of political, business and diverse community leaders. The Alliance developed a plan to improve educational quality while desegregating the schools in the Dallas Independent School District (DISD). Part of the approved plan was the district’s magnet schools program, which Humann authored. Today two of the top 10 high schools in the nation are DISD magnet schools.
Improving infrastructure to build better communities
Humann led two projects that literally changed the way North Texans move around with the creation of Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) system in 1983, and the revamped North Central Expressway Corridor completed in 1999. Humann chaired the DART campaign and is known as the “father” of DART. The system provides nearly 110 million passenger trips a year on a multi-modal system of commuter rail, light rail, buses, high occupancy vehicle lanes, car/van pools, and Handi-Ride services to Dallas and 13 other cities. DART has received the “Best Transit System in America” award.
Humann also developed and chaired the North Central Task Force to address the most congested highway in the southern U.S. and the third-most dangerous in the nation. He developed a single consensus plan (approved by the governor, mayors, the business community, neighborhoods and commuters) to expand the highway while putting the new DART line below in a tunnel. Further, he helped obtain the USD1 billion in funding required and worked with the Texas Department of Transportation to ensure the project was completed under budget and one year ahead of schedule. Today, the North Central Corridor has an international reputation for functionality, aesthetics and economic impact.
Thinking differently to revitalize the inner city
Humann says his time in the Fellows program encouraged him to look at problems in a different way and understand that there are multiple dimensions to any challenge. The best example of this is his work as the founding chairman of the Jubilee Park Community Project in Dallas. A long-neglected inner-city area, Jubilee Park had high rates for crime, unemployment, sub-standard housing and poverty. Rather than focusing on only one need, the Jubilee Project adopted the entire 100-block neighborhood. It chose a radically different approach by comprehensively addressing all elements needed for revitalization including education, crime, housing, health, employment, economic development and governance.
“You’ve got to work simultaneously to address the vicious cycle of problem areas,” Humann says. “Crime affects housing, which affects education, which impacts economic development, which affects employment, which impacts crime. The Jubilee Project primarily used private funding and lots of volunteers, stayed engaged for the long term, and listened to and honored feedback from the resident leaders.”
Today, Jubilee Park has been adopted as a national model. It boasts an award-winning park; a community center that is the heartbeat of the area; affordable housing; senior housing; a Head Start School; an Early Head Start School; and a restored landmark church. The area now has one of the lowest crime rates in Dallas.
If at first you don’t succeed
Humann has not always succeeded, but even in defeat he keeps moving forward. Prior to the creation of DART, Humann was asked by local mayors to lead a campaign for a proposed regional transportation initiative covering five counties and 58 cities. The effort failed but that did not stop Humann, a strong supporter of public transit.
The day after the election, Humann wrote an action plan to bring the issue back to the voters. He organized the Transportation Task Force composed of local political, business and grassroots leaders from Dallas and the suburbs. He recruited his opponents along with the professional societies of architects, engineers and over 1,000 volunteers. Three years after the defeat, the DART election passed by a wide margin and became the first major public transportation system in the Southwest.
Humann says one of the most important lessons learned as a Fellow is that business and civic entities require sufficient funding. “People may have great ideas, but the entity needs leadership with a business background to understand the financials and raise funds. A financial background is part of a YPO member’s DNA,” he says.
Humann believes the Fellows program should have business people in its ranks for diversity and to broaden the educational process for other Fellows during their year in service. He encourages YPO members to apply. “If they do apply and are accepted as a White House Fellow, that experience will change their lives as it did mine,” Humann says.
Interested in becoming a White House Fellow? The application process begins each year on November 1st. Candidates participate in a nationwide competition where eight regional panels narrow the field and ultimately about 15 Fellows are selected each year.
For more information go to https://www.whitehouse.gov/get-involved/fellows/.
