GSPM News

Speech to the California Credit Union League Dinner

Christopher Arterton, Dean, The Graduate School of Political Management

February 26, 2007

Thank you Bill (Cheney). And good evening and thank you to Charles and Martha Purcell.

This is indeed an occasion of pain and celebration.  Pain because of the shared loss…of a friend…a colleague…and a role model; a young woman of panache and vigor, of irreverence and chutzpah; of talent and energy.

The metaphor about Kelly’s death that seems to me to apply most aptly is to the Challenger disaster.  Kelly was a rocket ship…bound upward for the stars.  The GSPM and the California and Nevada Credit Union Leagues provided the launch pad, but Kelly provided the ignition and the propulsion.  Stellar promise…cruelly ended!

But, we are also gathered here to celebrate Kelly’s life…a life so quickly lived.  I was fortunate enough to meet with Kelly twice during what would be her last month.  She was literally on top of the world, and at the top of her game; living the life that she loved and working the job that she loved.

Such unbounded passion for life should be a message to all of us!  I know I wish I had half her Zip.  And, having seen literally thousands of young people pass through the school and on into the world of policy and politics, I know that Kelly’s abundant supply of energy was not just youth in all its transcendent enthusiasm.  It was, rather, the unique essence of Kelly Purcell.  I’m privileged to count myself among the Friends United to Commemorate Kelly; both the spirit and the acronym are appropriate.

I want to express my profound thanks to the donors gathered here tonight, individual and institutional.  We at the GSPM recognize that a memorial scholarship requires careful stewardship on our part, and we will seek to honor Kelly’s life, essence and spirit every year, in every award that we make of this scholarship.

When I discussed with the faculty awarding the first Kelly J. Purcell Credit Union Memorial Scholarship, I described the Kelly I knew, who she was and how she lived.  Three faculty members immediately said, “That sounds exactly like Helen Kim!”  They were speaking of her zest for life and for her work and of her energy. 

Helen works in a very different industry; she runs the Political Action Committee for the National Propane Gas Association.  I hesitate to say that under her management PropanePAC has seen explosive growth.  That would be accurate but something of a cheap shot.  In her work, Helen has taken a lead in organizing and promoting an annual public affairs, legislative push here in Washington, something akin to your purpose here this week.  From 2002 to 2004, Helen worked at Morgan, Meredith and Associates, doing major donor fundraising for four Republican congressional campaigns.  Before that, she was Deputy Finance Director for Mark Early’s 2000 gubernatorial campaign in Virginia.

She is a graduate of Washington and Lee University; she is in her second year at the GSPM; and will finish her Masters degree this summer, if she passes my course.

So, Bill (Cheney) will you join me in presenting the first, annual Kelly J. Purcell Memorial Credit Union scholarship to Helen M. Kim.