What's In a Name?

In the 1960s I worked with Timberline Lodge as a commercial loan officer for U.S. Bank. Later in the 1970s, as the unpaid executive secretary of the Friends of Timberline, I was confronted with a financial crisis regarding the completion of the Lodge’s lower floor museum.

The Meyer Memorial Trust had approved a $50,000 grant contingent upon the job being finished by a certain time. If the “friends” could not meet the time required, the grant approval would be withdrawn and we would be left with an unfinished job and a $50,000 debt.

As time was running out, a turf battle threatened to kill the project. The U.S. Forest Service owned the building and the Oregon State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) had a final word on what physical changes could be made.

A representative of the USFS and of the SHPO had a minor disagreement on a certain change that had to be made to the museum space and neither would budge. It was a “Who-is-in-charge?” battle.

Being the executive secretary of the board of trustees and the project director who had solicited the grant, I thought I had enough clout with these two men to mediate a deal. I was wrong. After an hour in a closed room with the two, I gave up and finally said to them,

“I thought I could mediate a solution with you two, but I obviously did not. However, we do have an active member of our board who is a famous mediator; would you like to meet with him?”

“Who is that?” they asked.

“His name is Mark O. Hatfield and he is the senior U.S. Senator from Oregon. Would you like to sit down with him and talk?”

The answer “No” came almost in unison from the two antagonists and in 15 minutes we had a deal. Both of these men knew their jobs were dependent on the largess of Senator Hatfield and neither wanted to look so stupid in his presence.

So, WHAT’S IN A NAME?

The answer is POWER.

It is the power of a name, whether used personally by the owner or just dropped for clout as in this case.

To this day, I have never told the Senator how I used his “name only” to save $50,000 for the Friends of Timberline.