NASW NEWS

Pioneers Hold Key to Our Legacy

By Elizabeth J. Clark, Ph.D., ACSW

About a decade ago, I had my first opportunity to visit the national office of NASW. I can't remember the purpose of my visit, but I clearly recall stepping into NASW's "Pioneer Room." The walls of the room contain pictures, mementos and brass plaques — one for each of over 300 social work pioneers.

I had been fortunate to begin my social work education with the encouragement of Eleanor Cockerill, a professor at the University of Pittsburgh's School of Social Work and a pioneer in the field of oncology social work. Professor Cockerill's mentoring helped to shape my social work career, and I was thrilled to see her name on one of the brass plaques.

During my first month as executive director of NASW, I was contacted by Ruth Knee and Mark Battle, co-chairs of the NASW Pioneer Steering Committee. Mark was executive director of NASW from 1984 to 1992. Ruth was a founding member of NASW and is one of the two individuals for whom our Knee/Wittman Awards are named. They offered me their support and invited me to their next Pioneer Steering Committee meeting.

Since that time, we have worked together in a variety of ways. We have jointly established the Legacy Project within the NASW Foundation to raise funds for archiving the history of NASW and in preparation for our 50th anniversary celebration, which will take place in 2005.

That is also the target date for publishing a retrospective on the 50-year history of the association. The goal of the retrospective will be to capture the impact that NASW has had on the profession and on society.

In an effort to collect some of this information, I have been meeting with social work pioneers as I travel around the country. A few months ago, I spent a wonderful afternoon with Gisela Konopka in Minnesota. I learned about how she came to be a social worker and marveled at the impact (including 300 publications) that she has had on social work with groups.

More recently, I spent a week in California and met several social work pioneers there, including Kurt and Betty Reichert, Chauncey Alexander, Rhoda Sarnat and Diana Ming Chan. Kurt was president of NASW from 1963 to 1965. I sat with both Kurt and Betty (who also has had an outstanding career in social work) as we watched a documentary that Kurt made about the role of NASW in the civil rights movement. Called "How NASW Mobilized for Civil Rights," the documentary video describes how NASW was part of the effort, participated in the 1963 March on Washington and was present in the White House Rose Garden when the Civil Rights Act was signed by President Lyndon Johnson in 1964.

Later that same week, I met with Suzanne Dworak-Peck, who was president of NASW from 1987 to 1989. Part of Sue's legacy was strengthening NASW's role in social work in the international arena, especially our relationship with the International Federation of Social Workers. Sue also has been instrumental in working towards an accurate portrayal of social work in the media and is the founder of the NASW Communications Network (NCN).

I also had the wonderful experience of meeting with Chauncey Alexander and his wife Sally. Chauncey was the executive director of NASW during many of its formative years (1969-1982). He has written about that period, and it was particularly heartening for me to learn that some of our current-day struggles are not so different from problems NASW encountered years ago.

I also met with two wonderful pioneers whose generosity continues to make a difference in social work today. Social worker Diana Ming Chan and her husband Clarence and son Harrison Leong have established an endowment within the NASW Foundation that greatly benefits school social workers in the San Francisco area. Called the Learning Springboard Endowment, its intent is to rebuild the cadre of school social workers in California.

Rhoda Sarnat and her husband Bernard also have established an NASW endowment that is used each year to present the International Rhoda G. Sarnat Award, which is given to an individual or group that has significantly advanced the public image of social work. This past year, pioneer Katherine Kendall was the award recipient.

To be elected to pioneer status, an individual must be nominated and must meet certain criteria, including a sustained record of achievement over a period of 25 years. A listing of the current NASW pioneers and the guidelines for nomination of additional pioneers can be found on the NASW Foundation Web site at www.naswfoundation.org. I hope many of you will take the time to nominate your own role models and mentors whose work and vision have formed the cornerstone of the profession.

I also hope each of you will consider making a contribution to the NASW Legacy Project fund so that the history of our association and its impact on society can be preserved for future generations of social workers.

To comment to Elizabeth J. Clark: NewsColumn@naswdc.org