Scattershooting while wondering whatever happened to Mean Joe Greene of 1980s moving and memorable Coca-Cola Super Bowl commercial . . . Lost another old friend to cancer this past week. Jerry Formanek, a gracious and selfless man of considerable intellect and remarkable patience, went to be with His Lord after a long battle with lymphoma. Jerry endured far more than I have experienced to this point in my battle — much, much more. He loved his wife, Betty, dearly, caring for her to his last days, though her needs were many and challenging. It was Jerry who introduced us to Peter Cook, Dudley Moore and the other “Beyond the Fringe” humorists who first polished their craft while students at Cambridge. Like his good friend (and mine), Don Regier, Jerry could quote at length from the classic British humor he unearthed from the 60s-era tapes kept, of all places, in the Dallas Theological
Seminary radio room. Jerry worked for me for about four years doing the radio work for DTS. He also had a weekend job as an announcer at the Dallas classiscal music station, WRR. He was the model of faith. A servant to others in every way — from his family, to his colleagues, to his church, and to those he served as a volunteer at the Baylor Sammons Cancer Center. Jerry was a graduate of Duke University, Dallas Theological Seminary, and of the trials and tribulations of life that none of us expect for ourselves. He blessed all who knew him. . . .
Meanwhile, where have all the leaders gone? Too many would-be leaders have substituted entrepreneurial gifts or bureaucratic rule creation and enforcement or a hale-fellow-well-met personality for leadership. It ain’t so. As the brilliant modeler of leadership, Max DePree, writes in Leadership Is an Art, one of the signs of entropy in an organization is “an orientation toward the dry rules . . . rather than a value orientation that takes into account such things as contribution, spirit, excellence, beauty, and joy.” Leaders see and celeb
rate these things. They also, as DePree says so simply and elegantly, “define reality.” Not much of that going around these days, though Jack Welch really pulled it off at GE. . . .
Daughter Jennie is now just over a year away from completing her doctorate in education at USC, teaching freshman English at Biola University and most recently signed by Azusa Pacific University to teach in their new liberal studies/undergraduate education program. Exciting days ahead for her. I am very proud of all she is and does. . . . And then there was the leader who had to give up his title because he had no followers.
