Motley Blog

Through my involvement with Hampshire College's pioneering divestiture policy I was able to attend several of the very early meetings of the trade organization, the SRI Forum. Below is a letter to John Watts, a Texas born investment banker/lawyer and a Hampshire Board member. It concerns the board's selection of an investment adviser, post their divestment decision. This letter introduces my John Watts story, below.

I don't know Mr. Watts 'business' profile, but another Hampshire Board member, Gerald Levin, ended up running Time Warner for a time. Purely speculation, but presumably this guy had a hand in it. He's perhaps best know on campus for giving a graduation speech shortly after the Reagan era fall of the Berlin wall. Quote "The wicked witch of the east, socialism, is now dead". No mention of who the wicked witch of the west was, or is, but I'd suspect he had something in mind.

I'd been warned about Mr. Watts, presumably because of actions regarding some of the first generation divestiture activists. I only recall one conversation with him. It was about a mountain area in Northern Mexico that we had both visited. (Creel, Chihuahua - a base of Pancho Villa's).

But my big mistake was suggesting Dan Evans, former president of Evergreen, to replace the outgoing College President. Mr. Evans was a Senate Colleague of Brock Adams, a parent and also a Board Member. Speculating here, but I'd guess that Evans' quick departure from the Senate was Brock's doing (in hindsight, rightly) and Evans in Adams' career ending scandal (in my opinion likely wrongly).

I've got a theory about some of this, with some additional evidence - more current. Not sure if it all would hold up, but it is something that could be investigated.

From the 1984 April Fool's Edition of the Hampshire College paper.

In the spring of 1984 I drafted a proposal for 'alternative' business education at my school, Hampshire College. This followed up on my earlier work in the field of Socially Responsible Investing - something documented in the Hampshire College archives.

Though some of the radical folks hated me I did establish good relationships with a few board members - I have a great story about hanging out with the IBM R&D V.P. and also met Secretary of Transportation Brock Adams. But my best working relationship was with a gentleman by the name of Yerger Johnstone, a Vietnam era colonel and managing director of Venture Capital for Morgan Stanley. (He married a woman of more left leaning persuasions, assumably for love.)

The below letter is from another Board Member, the respected NY Nuclear Activist Cora Weiss, concerning a forward of that proposal from Yerger.

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Unfortunately this is an idea I didn't follow up on - lost over the summer, and the following year. Ms. Weiss's points are accurate - including competition from the Yale School of Management not too far South. Her points about individuals managing their own work do highlite an important distinction about just what actually constitutes 'business'.

Her definition of business as exploitation is unfortunately too close to the truth. My belief though is that business in a democracy is not based on corporate units but rather individuals making decisions on how to best apply their time to their own 'life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness'.

I tried to post a claim on Wikipedia for inventing the Rave. It survived an initial challenge but would later be pulled down. The producing group operated under the name 'Deviant DoubleSpeak', aka the Doctors of Dental Science, DDS. Several events were attempted, only one was funded, 'SpringFire, a Bachnalian Firefest'. The general idea was 'participatory entertainment' with volunteer 'actors' mingling with the crowd with a very loose impromptu oriented 'script'.

Raves are implicitly associated with the drug Ectasy. This event didn't have that connection, however it was within a year or two of when it first started showing up on that Campus, likely one of the first. I think the claim to being the first Rave has some relevance as part of a tradition of partying that includes the Grateful Dead and Warhol type loft events. I actually have never tried that particular drug, a minor regret.

The best evidence of this connection likely comes from an even more memorable event a year later closely following the themes of this one, organized by a participant.

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FWIW, I don't think this was the proposal that was funded. I do believe this group did an event themselves, a bit more arts oriented, in the same theme. Very well done.

BTW, Phil and I would probably make a pretty good director/producer team, should anyone have the backing.

Below is the AP story about a tragic incident at my Alma Mater, Hampshire College, a protest suicide on closed circuit campus TV. I had never met Mr. Hermann, but the rest of the cast and crew were all friends, a de facto artist collaborative, if you will. The group is best known for the roots grunge band 'Supreme Dicks'. I was the 'manager' of said group - as much for fun as anything, but I did do one good event for the group (co-organized with Phil Jackson, the show's production manager). NYC marketeer John Mitchell would later make a similar effort, even booking them on a short European tour.

Though the tape of the incident was sought after by the 'Faces of Death' folks it was confiscated, under threat, by the Campus Administration. I don't know if my experience at Hampshire was listed in Mr. Hermann's speech, but it was certainly part of the general problem.

FWIW I'd guess the tape does still exist somewhere.

Here's the poster for the memorial for Andrew, modeled after that same event Phil and I co-produced. See also this story.

I moved to Seattle in January 1986, my first civic involvement was volunteering to help start the Broadway (Seattle) BIA, second was a group called KC 2000. (The end result would be the Metro/King County Merger per the Judge Zilly decision.) These folks would be perceived as the typical regional heavy hitter crowd. FWIW though the earlier, more modest endeavor, sits sweeter in my memory.

This was the end of the Reagan, fall of 1987 when George I was making his run. At that time the economy was tanking, and I used that as a theme for a promotional editorial I wrote in the UW Student Newspaper - The Daily.

Best thing about this event was the UW Students and Faculty I met - faculty included the Geographer/Demographer Richard Morrill and Transportation Engineer Scott Rutherford.

Two student footnotes: The Op-Ed was published by Sally Clark, currently a Seattle Councilmember, and perhaps the best home grown public career resume of my generation, locally.

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Second was Tom Nolan. At the time he was doing his Master's Thesis on a proposed Computerized Mapping system for King County. Tom currently runs the City of Seattle Department, funded by City Light. This is his Master's thesis abstract/outline relevant to the local history of this profession, a topic I should continue to write on.

The handwriting should be his.

This is the write up of a survey I did for Vision Seattle on public finance issues. Though not a huge response the folks were quite varied and vocal - a great way of going viral. Note especially the results on the Seattle Commons.

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This is a partial scan of a full spread on the Madrona neighborhood - where I served as Secretary of the Community Council for 3 years.

Doug waits anxiously for the Acme Real Estate Agency to bring him a buyer....

MLS Listing of my house

The remodel work is mine. It's a bit rougher than it looks in the pictures, but not bad. It did take longer than I orginally thought, hence the sale right now.

Sound Transit makes the environmental claim that their system is environmentally friendly - because it encourages urban living.

But let's not forget that one of the reasons people have left Urban environments is because of the standard practices of urban legal 'control' (I'd use the words 'Urban Harrassment').

As such, a prediction for your consideration-

Urban living could be made more desirable than the benefits of Sound Transit at zero cost by removing Sound Transit legal counsel COMPLETELY from power.