Journey Through Governance

A Journey through Governance: A Public Servant's Experience under Six Presidents is a memoir revealing how the United States government works behind closed doors, through the eyes of a public servant who spent nearly twenty-five years in the midst of it. William A. Morrill, the quintessential public servant, takes the reader by the hand, inside the White House fence and through Capitol corridors to meet presidents, senators, generals, and cabinet secretaries as they deal with one critical national issue after another. Among the projects central to Morrill's time in federal government were helping to spearhead healthcare reform in the early 1970s, transforming the telecommunications industries, improving emissions standards under the Clean Air Act, and helping to figure out how many nuclear bombs were needed in the United States. On the local level, Morrill put his problem-solving talents to work in Fairfax County, Virginia, during a stint as deputy county executive. Morrill writes: "I want to share an insider's look at events and challenges that are more exciting and historically significant than readers may have guessed. But more important, I want to convey the necessity, even the nobility, of the work of those who serve in government." Morrill hopes his book will inspire others to follow his footsteps into lives of public service. WILLIAM A. MORRILL has had a long distinguished career of public service in federal and local government. He served in the administrations of six presidents, from Eisenhower to Carter: at the Pentagon on the Air Force Headquarters staff; in the Executive Office of the President under Presidents Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, and Carter; and as an assistant secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare under Presidents Ford and Carter. Morrill has remained engaged in public-service and public-policy matters in the private sector, including with the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Public Administration. After leaving government, he was president of Mathematica Policy Research, chief executive and chairman of Mathtech, and a senior fellow at ICF International.