The Fitzgerald endowment

The official plan for the Duane D. Fitzgerald Gubernatorial Endowment for the State of Maine at Harvard University says the intensive training sessions it will provide are for “examination of a specific policy problem or crisis facing Maine, or for benchmarking and review of best practice models in state government.” More succinctly, Gov. Angus King says they’ll be “a great place to steal ideas.”

They should be that and more. Most certainly, the program, endowed by the Libra Foundation and announced this week at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, is a splendid tribute to Buzz Fitzgerald. Mr. Fitzgerald is widely known as the former chief executive officer of Bath Iron Works; by his own doing, he is not widely known as a philanthropist, activist in innumerable public causes and advisor to state policymakers, though he is all of these things. Gov. King, speaking Wednesday, said Mr. Fitzgerald was a wise man, the person to call at midnight or 6 a.m. when an intractable problem was in dire need of ethical guidance.

Perhaps the Kennedy school program will help future policymakers with just these sorts of problems. The $500,000 endowment will allow high-level Maine officials to gather every other year, or more often if necessary, to meet with Kennedy faculty, examine how other states have successfully addressed specific problems and set, then figure out how to meet, goals of better governance. The school could provide that rare opportunity for Maine leaders to get a chance to thoroughly understand an issue before being required to act.

Unmistakably moved by the attention (much deserved) he received at the Kennedy school, Mr. Fitzgerald quickly pointed out that it was the generosity of the late Elizabeth Noyce, whose legacy includes the Libra Foundation, that gives Maine this important endowment. Indeed, the Libra Foundation, with the leadership of its president, Owen Wells, has not only made superb donations to causes from Fort Kent’s Winter Sports Center to genetics research at Jackson Laboratory to summer camps for Bangor and Lewiston kids to the Portland Museum of Art, it is investing in Maine in ways that will improve the lives of Maine people permanently. It is setting a standard in philanthropy.

And with this latest endowment in honor of Mr. Fitzgerald, it is setting a standard for Maine government, as well.