A call to leadership

TO BECOME A journalist, I had to unlearn good manners.

Mom always taught me that you didn't ask people their age, money, religion or politics, in that order. That's rude, she said.

She may have been right for dinner parties, but this job often requires asking rude questions. Or making rude suggestions.

I am reluctant to tell other people how to spend their own hard-earned money, but I will do it because some readers asked, after my Aug. 19 column that basically decried Philadelphia's lack of leaders, where they will come from. I was writing about getting I-95 covered where it slices through Center City, an idea that almost everyone likes but has been languishing forever because of a lack of leadership. I said maybe we needed a king to step forward. The king was a metaphor for leadership. I could have, and maybe should have, said sparkplug, or quarterback, or warrior princess.

I am not asking the super-rich to fund it themselves. I am saying today's barons and baronesses have clout and connections and are accustomed to getting things done.

So I start with the richest Philadelphians, and by "Philadelphians" I mean Greater Philadelphia. It is these people whom I first call on to pull out their wallets, or, more importantly, their leadership to create the change Philadelphians need.

My favorite revolutionary was the multifaceted Ben Franklin. He provided inspiration resulting in public libraries, fire departments, post offices, the University of Pennsylvania and so much more.

How did he achieve so much? I believe it was because he asked himself, "What good have I done today?"

Not what good have I done, with its implied invitation to sit on laurels. He asked what good he did today, meaning doing good was a journey, not a destination.

OK, the rich among us.

While Walter H. Annenberg, worth about $4 billion at the time of his death in 2002, is no longer with us, his family is out there, no strangers to giving.

Where the Annenbergs left off with publishing, another medium, cable TV, was the gold mine where Ralph and Brian Roberts made their considerable fortune. Among their greatest assets is David L. Cohen. Another cable magnate is Harold "Gerry" Lenfest, patriarch of the Lenfest clan and an owner of the Daily News.

Mary Alice Dorrance Malone, Dorrance Hill Hamilton and George Strawbridge are heirs to the Campbell Soup megafortune.

Harold Honickman is chairman of the Honickman group of soft-drink bottling and distribution companies. Alfred P. West Jr. runs SEI, the Oaks, Pa.-based financial-services company. James Kim started Amkor in 1968 as the American sales/design partner to his father H.S. Kim's Korean chipmaker.

Joseph Neubauer joined ARA in 1978 as CFO and led a $1.2 billion leveraged buyout in 1984. The company was renamed Aramark, which you've heard of. Neubauer is chairman and CEO.

Now for others who may be rich, but more importantly have a proven track record of accomplishment. Some haven't yet fully bloomed, others are beyond ripe, but age has wisdom in its DNA and youth is charged with energy.

Bill Cosby, Julius Erving. Need I say more?

Ed Snider's chief asset is the Flyers and a talent for getting things done. As Philly's parking-lot magnate, Joe Zuritsky has a deep interest in a prosperous city, or should. Philadelphia Gay News publisher Mark Segal has a record of producing for his community, through fundraising, political savvy and being annoying.

Greater Philadelphia Tourism and Marketing Corp. honcha Meryl Levitz is hands-on and can-do. Philadelphia Urban League CEO Pat Coulter deals with power all day long. Richard Vague, managing partner of Gabriel Investments, is ready for his close-up. Jamira Burley is executive director of the Philadelphia Youth Commission, which gives her some connections that her elders lack.

Onetime bank executive A. Bruce Crawley is president and principal owner of Millennium 3 Management and sits on a lot of boards with the right kind of people. Manny Stamatakis, president and CEO of Capital Management Enterprises, believes covering I-95 is not only good for the city, but will return double whatever it costs.

Now say hello to union power in the form of Electricians Union leader Johnny Dougherty, who can play the inside game as well as anyone and has a record of achievement. If it's raw political appeal and clout, former-everything Ed Rendell. Not a great detail man, but is he looking for the next great challenge? If I'm calling out a union guy and a politician, here I add U.S. Rep. Bob Brady, who is both.

Ira M. Lubert is chairman and co-founder of gonzo Lubert-Adler Real Estate. I twin him up with Michael Sklaroff, a partner in Ballard Spahr and a man with previous civic achievements.

The son of a former Pennsylvania governor, David B. Thornburgh is executive director of Penn's Fels Institute of Government. He is one of the most trusted and respected civic "connectors" in our area.

With the personnel accounted for, I can't close this out without noting, and saluting, the important work done by the William Penn Foundation, the Knight Foundation and the Pew Charitable Trust.

Who will pick up the phone to create an ad hoc Leadership Council? Who will call someone else on the list and ask: "What good have we done today?"