John W. Gardner, cabinet official and Common Cause founder, dead at 89

<br>SAN FRANCISCO (AP) _ John W. Gardner, a trailblazing advocate of democratic participation and volunteerism who became known as ``the father of campaign finance reform,'' has died. He was 89.

Sunday, February 17th 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) _ John W. Gardner, a trailblazing advocate of democratic participation and volunteerism who became known as ``the father of campaign finance reform,'' has died. He was 89.

He died Saturday at his home on Stanford University's campus, according to his daughter, Francesca Gardner.

Gardner helped launch Medicare, founded Common Cause, led the Carnegie Corporation and kept engaged in the nation's intellectual life until he was bedridden in January from complications of prostate cancer that was diagnosed two years ago.

A California native, Gardner returned to teach at Stanford University in 1989 after decades of public service which by 1964 had earned him the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

His accomplishments ranged over decades and across disciplines. But it was his founding of Common Cause that perhaps best captured his intellectual-activist impulse.

``We are going to build a true 'citizens' lobby _ a lobby concerned not with the advancement of special interests but with the well-being of the nation,'' Gardner said in 1970 as he introduced a group that quickly became significant in national politics.

As its membership swelled to hundreds of thousands of members, the nonpartisan group wielded tremendous political clout, helping reform the nation's campaign finance laws.

``When Americans attend open meetings or read their government's documents, or take part in our battered but resilient public finance system for presidential elections, there is a memorial to John Gardner,'' Common Cause President Scott Harshbarger said. ``When we turn on public television, or when government ensures no senior or poor person goes without health care, we take part in programs John Gardner initiated.''

Gardner wasn't simply an outsider railing against a money-driven political culture. He brought to Common Cause a keen understanding of the ways of Washington influence and power and a belief in the nation's model of government.

``He loved American democracy, the possibilities of it,'' said Francesca Gardner. ``He didn't try to go international. To make this a good country was enough.''

Gardner was secretary of health, education and welfare at the height of President Lyndon Johnson's Great Society program and the cabinet's token Republican. He occupied the post from Medicare's first year in 1965 until he resigned in 1968 after concluding Johnson should not run again.

Prior to that posting, Gardner was a frequent government adviser, even though he was busy as president of the Carnegie Corporation beginning in 1955. One of his proposals became the White House Fellows Program and he edited ``To Turn the Tide,'' a collection of John F. Kennedy's speeches. He was also a prolific author of books on leadership and self renewal.

The enduring philosophy that emerged from his work was that intellectual rigor and perseverance _ if not impatience _ help turn good ideas into the common good.

``The test is whether in all the confusion and clash of interests, all the distracting conflicts and cross purposes, all the temptations to self-indulgence and self-exoneration, we have the strength of purpose, the guts, the conviction, the spiritual staying power to build a future worthy of our past,'' Gardner said in the 1991 commencement speech at Stanford University.

Gardner was born in Los Angeles in October 1912, and grew up in the then-fledgling housing development of Beverly Hills. His father died when he was only one. He dropped out of high school to travel in Asia with his grandparents but eventually graduated Stanford University in 1935 with a bachelor's degree in psychology. Just three years later he earned a doctorate in psychology from the University of California, Berkeley.

Gardner said that in his youth he preferred reflection to action. But World War II _ he served as a Marine officer in Europe _ jolted him into a more activist role.

Among other posts, Gardner was chairman of the National Urban Coalition, as well as the National Civic League. In 1980 he co-founded Independent Sector, an organization that encouraged volunteerism.

Gardner's admirers have named several awards and fellowships after him.

Gardner is survived by his wife of 67 years, Aida; two daughters, Stephanie Gardner Trimble and Francesca Gardner; two granddaughters and two grandsons; and his brother, Louis.