Kindness: Secret to One President's Success?

When presidential candidates are at war with one another and cannot even bear to shake each other’s hands, can we imagine that kindness might once have been key to a candidate’s success?
 
Bert Walker, former ambassador to Hungary and member of Groton’s Form of 1949, suggested in a recent chapel talk that kindness indeed had contributed to the ascent of George Herbert Walker Bush, the forty-first U.S. president and Mr. Walker’s cousin.
 
“Almost from his preteen years, he was the first to open doors, lift suitcases, try to cheer friends or classmates that he perceived were depressed or down,” Mr. Walker recalled. “This quality brought him scores of friends, strengthened his self-image, and led to a career which one day led to his election as the forty-first president.”
 
President Bush may have his mother to thank for his good nature. Said Mr. Walker: “In his early years, his mother would not tolerate any conduct from him or his siblings that was not kind. So it became part of his nature—his being.”
 
Turning from President Bush to himself, the speaker said that he learned to appreciate the importance of kindness while a student at Groton. “It seems that some people are almost born kind, and others must learn it from lifetime struggles. Some others never seem to catch on,” he said. “Kindness often opens doors to new relationships and can heal broken relationships.”
 
Speaking on Groton School’s 132nd birthday, the former ambassador also reminisced about his years at Groton, learning discipline and respect—as well as fumbling through the occasional awkward dances with a sister school, long before the school became coed. “Many of us hardly knew how to dance and, worse, how to make conversation with these strangers who almost seemed to be from a different planet,” he said.

He described with some awe his opportunity to shake the hand of Endicott Peabody, shortly before the school’s founder’s death. He told the Chapel audience of the Reverend Peabody’s friendship with Teddy Roosevelt and his mentorship of Groton student Franklin Roosevelt (Form of 1900), who had the Reverend Peabody officiate at his marriage to Eleanor. Mr. Walker extolled the courage of a young man who forged his own career path to establish Groton School rather than follow his father into finance. “This was hardly the normal course for a young Episcopal clergyman twenty-seven years of age,” Mr. Walker said. “But he went ahead, and what a school it became!”
 
In closing, the speaker expressed faith and hope in the young audience before him, urging them to use their Groton education to heal the world. “Today the country needs, more than ever before, leaders with the education and values that Groton is offering you.
 
“So my hope is that you are taking and will take full advantage of all that the school is offering you—that you will set your sights high when you complete your education—and that you will do a better job than our generation has done in facing and dealing wisely with the myriad of huge and challenging issues which face our country today.”
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