JERRY | 2006-05-09
Jerry Whitlock just died.
He was my "almost uncle."
His family lived next door to where I was born in West Columbia, SC. The rest of my family was raised there, and they were very close to us.
Jerry was a member of the Greatest Generation, so he became a dedicated Southern turncoat in his politics. But he pesonally insisted that the only people he cared about were in the South.
Jerry was more screwed up than I was.
But in my defense, he had a head start:
Jerry was a psycholgy professor.
Jerry became a ruling member of the faculty at the University of Tennessee. He became one of the leading national experts in psychology.
Let me tell you a story. When I was a Special Assistant to the head of the entire national civil service, the head of the whole national testing service was "under" me, meaning that she had to go through me to the policy making head of the civil service, my boss.
It turned out that Arthur Jensen was one of the authorities she, as head of all Federal testing, consulted.
On the other side from Jensen, her top expert for consultation was Professor Jerry Whitlock.
So I asked her to give my greetings to Jensen and to Dr. Whitlock. She didn't know I knew the latter far, far better.
At that level, at the very top, after all, things were VERY formal.
As I was getting into the elevator one day, she called me, but she was obviously a little undecided.
She said, "I gave Professor Whitlock your greetings, and he said..."
It took her a moment to convey the greetings of the top expert in Industrial Psychology to the Special Assistant to the Director of the Office of Personnel Management, appointed by President Reagan Himself.
But she did manage to finish, "He said, 'Tell Bobby hey.'"
This was obviously not the sort of communication she was used to repeating between two Big Guys.
Jerry betrayed us. And I loved the man.
Such is the nature of war between brothers.