New AIAMC Book Blog!! AIAMC BOOK BLOG: A Family Icon? Wild Bill…The Legend and Life of William O. Douglas

AIAMC Book Blog: A Family Icon?  Wild Bill…The Legend and Life of William O. Douglas

Gillian Abshire, RN, MS | Member AIAMC Board of Directors

Readings that influence…our perspectives, visions, dreams; our view of the world really are essentially a journey. And much like a journey can transform you, so can much of what we consume from our literary travels.  The impacts range from the slight to the profound, and they stay with you for an hour, a week, a lifetime.  “Wild Bill: The Legend and Life of William O. Douglas” embodies the “journey theme” to my thinking, analogous to a “great read.”

To add to the meaning, Justice William O. Douglas is a personal family icon (related through marriage) and therefore of special interest to myself and close family members. He might be the most famous person I have been associated with, and I am proud of the legacy of his work in the law, the groundbreaking precedent setting changes he championed especially in the areas of human rights, preservation of the wilderness and the establishment of standards in government oversight of the economics of the nation.

Mysteriously, however, there is very little shared from family who were closer in blood or marriage, who actually sat at table or spent a lifetime with William O Douglas (affectionately, WOD).  My siblings and I have been perplexed about unspoken (and essentially absent) recollections of the man, as a father, husband, justice, or politician.  With this paucity of verbal recounting, I turned to literature.  His own prolific writings are engaging muses on his “adventures” in his life and most focused more on his tramping through the wilderness - less on his career in law and as a Supreme Court Justice.  If you are a lover of the wild, much of what WOD wrote will sing to your soul as you are taken on adventures with sensory recountings (the smells, the sights, the sounds) of what it really is like to spend time in the forests of the Pacific Northwest and beyond.  If this is your “cup of tea,” try “Of Men and Mountains” or “Go East, Young Man: The Early Years.” 

In stark contrast, “Wild Bill, ” is not W.O. Douglas’ writing, rather, this a work of biographer Professor Bruce Allen Murphy, a judicial scholar who studied the man for 15 years.  In this writing, I discover a portrait of our family icon much differently represented than that which I had built in my mind’s eye over time from folklore - and from reading his own personal accountings of himself.  Can it be that he is not the “mountain of a man” I had grown up to understand? And this revelation, it turns out, provided reminders and affirmations.  What one thinks of oneself most likely is very different from what others think. And, more importantly, one can make amazing contributions, and yet possess human flaws, make mistakes, exhibit fears and phobias, illness and social errors, akin to all.  Isn’t this the human condition? 

Synopsis with Reflection

Not your classic “new” deep dive into organizational theory, leadership development, healthcare today and tomorrow - “Wild Bill” is a historical treatise which succeeds in commenting on all of these - and more.  Providing a view of - especially - the inner workings of our government a century ago, a reflection on how things used to be in those “rooms where it happened” and a glimpse at what made yesterday’s leaders tick.  This biography provides a filter for viewing what we see today, based on where we’ve been. In this read, we are treated to the way things were in the 1940’s through the 1980’s with regards to the inner workings of our government, a world influenced primarily by gender identified men and focused on social issues challenging policy and law in this, then, infantile experiment called democracy.

We walk through the Great Depression, the second World War and the wars that followed, the civil rights movement, the birth of labor and representation, and the need for and groundbreaking development of standards for our government’s hand in economics (mainly stock exchange) control. As one would suspect, we see very little diversity of any type in these government circles.  We visit a world where technology was just breaking through - fighting for "electricity for all” and making the transition from telegraph to telephone. The book provides a walk through the evolution of our government led by Roosevelt through to the presidential administrations of the 70’s and 80’s.

Of course, these decades shaped the man (W.O Douglas) and this biography chronicles how he, in turn, influenced our democracy. But there were many surprises along the way, accountings I had never heard from family folklore.  For instance, I hadn’t realized WOD’s deep desire to serve as our nation’s president, how he worked so hard to attain that, and how he narrowly missed “the call” on at least 3 different occasions.   I began to understand a different portrait, one of a man who - in his stubbornness thwarted his own presidential aspirations by standing on principle or social formality. His own writings did not reveal this.

As I completed this “journey” of a read, I felt a settling, a deeper understanding with more patience with the complexities of this grand social experiment we call democracy. More importantly, on a personal level, there is deeper meaning in the absence of family celebration over the accomplishments of our Justice W.O. Douglas.  A piece of the puzzle has now been more neatly placed. 

Humans, despite our imperfections, really do accomplish amazing things.  What happens along the way toward those accomplishments is the true human story. Inspiration lies in the doing of the thing.

And now, I think it’s time to get out to the back country and hike up a rain forest river valley to a big “Blue Glacier” in the Olympic Mountains. 

About: Gillian Abshire, RN, MS| is Director, Graduate Medical Education at Virginia Mason Medical Center| Virginia Mason Franciscan Health – a member of Common Spirit in Seattle, WA. During her tenure at Virginia Mason, Gillian has led leadership and operational teams in clinical education, organizational development, VMPS/Toyota Production System improvement methods, human resources and GME.