Clarence Heller—An Appreciation

By Andrew I. Killgore

Clarence Heller of Atherton, CA, died last June at the age of 61. It is, no doubt, presumptuous to write about a man I met only once. I am emboldened to do so, however, by an editorial in a California newspaper which described him as a "hero to be emulated." It confirms my own judgment.

My limited contact with him took place over a lunch table in a quiet Washington club about a year ago. Clarence had initiated the meeting through a mutual friend who told us, forthrightly, that Clarence admired the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, to which he had subscribed for five years, and would almost certainly be willing to make a contribution to help assure its continuation. The friend rather ruefully added that she hoped we would not be too aggressive, since Clarence's continued financial support was vitally important to the work in support of Middle East peace of her own group, which had a largely Jewish membership.

When four of us sat down together for lunch, I had no idea whether Clarence considered himself a religiously observant Jew or simply an American of Jewish heritage. I still do not know. What I did learn that afternoon was that he was a man of delicacy and sensitivity. Clearly he understood that publishing on the scale we had undertaken requires resources, and that the variety of individual viewpoints we present denies us access to many institutional funding sources. Think tanks, endowments, and foundations generally follow well-traveled political tracks. The Washington Report jumps these tracks from time to time.

Clearly Clarence Heller also understood that retired Foreign Service officers don't have much experience at passing the hat. That was why he, the potential donor, had reversed roles by initiating the contact with the potential beneficiaries.

The "Good War" As a Mixed Blessing

Clarence and I discovered that we were of the same generation and had World War II, the defining event of that generation, in common. Most of those who participated in it thought of World War II as a "good war" and emerged with a distinct set of shared assumptions about our country's role in the world, and the obligations of its citizens. This has been a mixed blessing. It provided a measure of stability at a time of particularly marked social change. On the other hand, I believe it has made many of us insufficiently sensitive to the entirely different challenges facing subsequent generations. It has made too many of us hesitant to criticize publicly the elected leaders of the US government, even in cases where our own experience has made us aware that they were pursuing unwise policies.

Clarence and I discussed these things. As a young man inducted into active duty while still in his teens, Clarence's wartime experience had been considerably different than mine. Army basic training for most World War II inductees from California took place at Camp Roberts, a vast tract of hilly pasture land and live oak trees about 30 miles inland from the central California coast. One thing that made Clarence different from his fellow teenage soldiers was the fact that most of Camp Roberts had once belonged to his grandfather, a Los Angeles businessman.

The US government had requisitioned the land for a price far lower than its actual value. After the war, when other ranch owners received upward adjustments of the compensation they had received for their land, Clarence's father did not apply for an adjustment.

It was that attitude that his son brought to his military service. His scores on army aptitude tests qualified him for specialized training. However, he went off to the southwest Pacific as an infantry replacement.

Mutual Concern Over US Policies in the Middle East

We talked about Clarence's and my own Pacific service then, our mutual deep concern over the direction of US Middle East policies now, and my hope that the Washington Report is helping to create a more even-handed public opinion climate. I believe this can support a US presidential initiative to help get Palestinians and Israelis into constructive land-for-peace negotiations.

After three hours in which he never pressed us, I felt that Clarence was personally satisfied that he understood the Washington Report, its staff, and our goals. At the same time, I felt that I understood a lot about him. He was one of the best and most intelligent listeners I had ever encountered. He was unusual in that he seemed both self-assured and notably self-effacing. He was, in short, my generation's definition of a gentleman.

After he returned to California, I thought a lot about this unusual man who grew up in a family of great wealth, went off to the southwest Pacific as a combat infantryman, and, I was told by our mutual friend, preferred to ride a bicycle rather than drive the kind of expensive car he could easily have afforded.

Not long after our luncheon, a handsome donation of several thousand dollars arrived from Clarence, with a note authorizing us to use the money to subsidize subscriptions to the Washington Report for opinion leaders or others who might benefit. By telephone I suggested that we would try to use most of it for Jewish groups and institutions, naming him as the donor. His response was that we should use it however or wherever we thought it would do the most good, and with or without attribution to him.

I was, of course, very pleased to receive the money. I realized, however, that I derived even more satisfaction from the knowledge that this wise and utterly decent and humane individual understood and completely supported our efforts on behalf of a more even-handed Middle East policy. I was profoundly pleased that Clarence had sufficient confidence in my organization to suggest that we use the money wherever we thought it would do the most good.

Only since his death have I learned about some of the many good causes in the San Francisco Bay area which benefitted from Clarence Heller's generosity. An all-purpose "do-gooder" in the best sense of that sometimes abused term, he was also a businessman, and a talented one. In addition to his philanthropies, he had also been active in Democratic Party politics since the era of John F. Kennedy, who had first inspired his interest.

The Washington Report is a publication which seeks to demolish the "conventional wisdom" about the Middle East in general and the Israeli/Palestinian problem in particular. A mythology has grown up in the United States to falsify the historical background of Israel's problems with its Arab neighbors, and obscure the elements essential to any peace agreement. Most of the myths have long since been exposed in Israel, by Israeli writers working from Israeli documents. To expose these falsehoods in the United States, however, still generates extraordinary animosity.

In short, ours is not a mission for the faint-hearted or thin-skinned. Perhaps that's why I feel such an affinity for Clarence Heller. He was a generous philanthropist, a brave fighter for his beliefs, and a man who served where and when he was needed. His support lifted my spirits in exactly the manner described in one of Shakespeare's glorious sonnets:

"When in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes/I all alone beweep my outcast state,/And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries ... Hap(p)ily I think on thee... "

Andrew L Killgore, a former US ambassador to Qatar, is publisher of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs.