Pete Strange: A Generous Spirit and Volunteer Leader

The Jacob E. Davis Volunteer Leadership Award is presented annually by Greater Cincinnati Foundation to honor volunteers who stand out because of their leadership, vision, creativity and generosity of spirit. Jacob E. Davis was GCF’s first Governing Board chairman and the Foundation’s volunteer director from 1978 until 1987.

Pete Strange, this year’s award winner, delivered an inspiring acceptance speech about his ‘why’, which we think can benefit a broad audience and encourage more to contribute their time, talent and treasure to building a more vibrant and opportunity-rich region.

First, and most importantly, thank you to the GCF Leadership and to my many friends and teachers who brought me to this place. I am truly honored. It is indeed humbling to accept an honor named after Jake Davis and to follow so many great leaders who have been recognized before me.

The gasp some of you may have just heard came from my closest friends and relatives, who just realized that Pete had a drink and now he is standing at the podium with no notes. I will try to be uncharacteristically brief.

I need to acknowledge the fact that I did not come here alone. I am here tonight because of the many wonderful teachers I have encountered over the past fifty years. Let me tell you about a few of them.

Early in my career, I got a call from Sister Jean Patrice Harrington. Sister Jean started the conversation by saying, “Young man; I need an hour of your time.” I am not Catholic. I had never talked with a nun before. I had to learn that when a nun says she needs an hour of your time, she means an hour – a day – forever. Now, over forty nonprofit boards later, the true lesson that Sister Jean taught me is that joining with committed people, from diverse backgrounds, to help drive change is the shortest path to personal growth and positive progress.

My partners at Messer Construction, some here tonight and many others, taught me that success is not a zero-sum game; no one has to lose for you to win. Inclusive capitalism – allowing everyone who helps create value to own a stake in the results – is the path to sustainable shared prosperity.

Woody Keown, Jr. and the leaders at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center taught me to focus on the real competition. The real competition is not about the next business opportunity or the next building contract. The real competition is for the next generation of talent. To win the real competition young leaders have to learn that bias is not about good people versus bad people; bias is about all people. We each carry our life experiences and learnings with us everywhere we go, and they become the lens through which we see and judge the world. To win the real competition, cultural competency – being disciplined and aware enough to recognize and control our biases – has to become a required part of leadership growth. For that reason, I have asked that the wonderful gift the Davis family provides with this recognition be directed to support the Freedom Center’s world-class program addressing implicit bias and cultural competency.

Greater Cincinnati Foundation constantly reinforces two key lessons that I learned over five years of engineering school. The two lessons are: don’t panic in the face of complexity; and respect data. GCF leads through making informed, strategic investments to address the complex challenges that face our community. The investments that GCF makes each year are impactful; but the leverage they provide, through gathering and sharing data on impact, allows those of us who wish to invest in change to make informed decisions. Together, we are helping to create the future that our grandchildren need and deserve.

Finally, I end with the teacher who I have spent the most time with over the past fifty-plus years. Ginger, my wife, has played deep center field behind me covering all the gaps while I was off pursuing my hobby of work. She taught me to never let the merely urgent and interesting get in the way of the truly important. She taught me that payment and promotion may be evidence of a good career, but a strong and connected family is the foundation of a good life.

Ginger also taught me that when you are deciding where to start in making comments like these, it is best to start near the end.

So; I will end with this description of a great teacher, which appeared, without attribution, in the “Urban Appalachian Newsletter” many years ago.

“Come near to the edge.” the teacher said;
The student said, “It’s too tall.”
“Come near to the edge.” The teacher said;
The student said, “I might fall.”
“Come near to the edge.” The teacher said;
The student said, “It’s not fair.”
“Come near to the edge.” The teacher said;
The student said, “I don’t care.”

So, the teacher took him by the hand;
This student who would not try.
And, the teacher pulled him to the edge;
And pushed him off –
And watched him fly!

Thank you all,
Pete Strange