Back in the day (I mean the 1990’s), I ran the Global Private Banking business of Bankers Trust Company. We were not the largest private banking business in the world, but we were a significant first tier player. What that meant was that I owned two tuxedos and they barely got a rest from all the black tie events I had to attend. One of our big initiatives was something we called Wealth With Responsibility, and it was all about philanthropy and imbuing subsequent generations with the spirit and importance of ethical giving. It was all worthwhile stuff, but being on the “rubber chicken” circuit was not something I thought of as fun. Then, when I was busy in the 2013-2018 timeframe trying to build the New York Wheel on New York Harbor, I discovered a whole new dimension to the “rubber chicken” program. Rather than going to functions to schmooze clients, I was going to functions to be the local philanthropist and economic prosperity generator. Kim and I actually moved to Staten Island for three years and I suddenly learned what it felt like to be the really BIG man on campus. When you are building a highly visible and just as controversial $650 million project that faces the Statue of Liberty, backed by three of the biggest billionaire real estate families in New York and supported by Michael Bloomberg (the NY Observer cover art caricature of Bloomberg and me riding a Ferris wheel into the stratosphere still adorns my study wall), you need to schmooze an entire Borough of New York City pretty much every day. Kim and I split up the duties of sitting on just about every not-for-profit board on Staten Island, which meant that I had to dust off those tuxedos and gird my loins for a whole new level of “rubber chicken” diplomacy. So, let it suffice to say that I have paid my membership dues and my silent auction purchases and my purchased table stakes and my sponsorship (Diamond, Platinum, Gold, Silver and Bronze) donations from here to kingdom come. There are no fundraising gala surprises left in life for me at this point.
With my weight loss, I no longer have a tuxedo that even remotely fits me any more, but when we were invited by Kim’s singing pal Dulcinea (a Quixotic pseudonym for someone who chooses to remain anonymous) to a large fundraiser for which her husband Bill is the Chairman, I figured out a west coast version of formal wear that would fit the bill (pun intended). The sponsoring organization was the National Conflict Resolution Center and this was their annual PeaceMAKER awards ceremony. Chairman Bill is a very interesting guy who spent his career as a big-time corporate lawyer and now plays tennis while looking at the ocean from his home in LaJolla. He is the Central Casting version of the country club gentleman of professional bearing and silver hair that gives him immediate prominence and credibility. But wait a minute, there is so much more to Bill than that and his Chairmanship of this NCRC organization is a direct clue to that difference. One of my favorite movies is Emilio Esteves and Martin Sheen’s The Way, which is about finding meaning in life by walking the Camino de Santiago (the way of St. George) across northern Spain. Bill just did that with his daughter Hope, who lives in San Sebastián. Hmm… That’s not exactly a corporate guy event…a tad on the spiritually enlightened front. Then there is the fact that before the 2024 election, Bill went to canvas door-to-door for the Harris/Walz ticket in Michigan, where he went to law school. Upon further digging, one would find that Bill has quite the resume of involvement in good causes. There are the community organizations like the Rady Children’s Hospital Foundation of San Diego (Chair/Trustee), Rady Children’s Hospital (Trustee), Voices for Children (Director/Executive Committee), The Junior Seau Foundation (Director/Executive Committee), Kids Included Together, Inc. (Director/Executive Committee), not to mention his leadership of NCRC. It seems that Bill is committed to global diversity and inclusion, and has spoken widely on such topics, including for the Minority Corporate Counsel Association. Bill also serves on the San Diego Lawyers Club/ACC Joint Task Force for Gender Equality and the Association of Corporate Counsel and on the “Guys Overcoming Obstacles to Diversity” Panel (the “GOOD Guys”). It seems that Bill really is a VERY good guy.
The program for the evening’s events was emceed by local newscaster Lee Ann Kim, a woman of Korean heritage who adopted an orphaned Hispanic boy who has just joined the Marine Corps and is off to stand guard on a wall somewhere protecting us from the evils of the world. The PeaceMAKER awards for the evening went to a local philanthropist who blended community service and business building, Jack McGrory, one of the guys who built Price Club and has morphed that into the ubiquitous CostCo. There is a lot in San Diego that owes itself to Jack McGrory, including PetCo stadium, with whom we were competing for road space getting to the gala venue this evening, given that the San Diego Padres had a home game. The second “local” PeaceMAKER award went to Jorge Francisco Castillo, a musician who is the founder of the annual Fandango Fronterizo Festival, held at the Tijuana-San Diego border, a 300-year-old Mexican folk music tradition that fuses indigenous, Spanish, and African musical traditions and proves that the “Wall” is no barrier to the cultural connections and spirit that bind the U.S. and Mexico (This was a recent HBO documentary Fandango at the Wall). Right on, diversity! And then, finally, the National PeaceMAKER Award went to the keynote speaker of the evening, Dr. Reverend Bernice A. King, the daughter of Martin Luther King, Jr..
Dr. Bernice A. King is the youngest child of Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King. She is a global thought leader, strategist, orator, peace advocate, and CEO of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change (The King Center), which was founded by her mother as the official living memorial to the life, work, and legacy of her father. In her work, she continues to advance her parents’ legacy through policy, advocacy, research, and education via the Kingian philosophy of nonviolence, which she re-branded as Nonviolence365®. She was the only one of MLK’s four children to follow him into the ministry, and her preaching style is widely seen as similar to his. She spearheaded the 2013 “Let Freedom Ring” event commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the March on Washington, which included Presidents Obama, Clinton, and Carter.
The National Conflict Resolution Center is based right here in San Diego and has been operating since 1983. Its core message is “to provide services and training that transform conflict into resolution and foster civility and inclusivity.” Their core mission tagline is “Empower People, Transform Cultures” — grounded in the principle that issues in dispute can be resolved with the highest possible degree of civility and equitability. NCRC works with thousands of individuals across the globe to help resolve conflicts at all levels of society through unique and effective training programs, mediation services for the public and legal community, and conflict resolution services for community-based disputes. It’s essentially San Diego’s premier conflict resolution and civility organization, with a national and global reach. They chose well with Dr. King as their PeaceMAKER recipient, who told us that separation and divisiveness is an illusion and that contrary to her father’s own thoughts that evil men organize better than good men. She preferred the better spin on the thought that “When evil men plot, good men must plan. When evil men burn and bomb, good men must build and bind.”
My pal Bill is one of those men who spend his time planning, building and binding. As he is knows in the world of diversity, Bill is a GOOD man and we were happy to strap on the duds for this fundraiser.