Ethical Role Models

Katie, yes, all of us need role models, especially powerful ethical ones.  When this writer started his Ph.D. program at the University of Wisconsin - Madison, his wise career counselor advised this writer to take as many courses with two men, J.F. Kauffman, and D.J. McCarty.  The counselor said what they taught did not matter.  I was there to observe from how they acted!  Indeed, they became and have remained powerful role models.  Kauffman, now deceased, taught ethics in higher education!  He also designed the entire training program for the Peace Corps when it started!  You get the idea.  D.J. McCarty is still alive, age 92, but dementia has severed his ability to connect with others now.  I shall always remember him telling me this in a private dissertation meeting.  "What is always tested is your ethics."  We assume you know how to read and write; will you use those skills to help or hurt me?  That is the ethical key question, and he planted it in me.  Dr. Rux  P.S.  McCarty was commander of an entire U.S. air force fighter squadron on the front lines in World War II.  He was a serious person, although he knew how to laugh too.  He was, is balanced.