My Trip to Washington D.C. – Day 1, Part 1

My dad was honored posthumously at the National Conference of the Grant Professionals Association in Washington DC last week with about 900 members in attendance. My stepmom, one of my sisters and her kids, and I traveled to DC to accept the award on his behalf. It was amazing to hear the presentation, and to have so many people tell us what a difference he made to them through his work, his guidance, his stewardship, his books and classes that he taught, his career. As is the case with so many of us, we didn’t really know a lot about his professional life. This was the side that we didn’t know as well, just as his colleagues didn’t know of his activism, that he had started counterculture newspapers in Portland, that he had worked with a local independent radio station there, KBOO, many times over the years to keep it going and help it find its mission.

The award was the Inaugural ‘Class of Distinguished Fellows’, described as: “The Grant Professionals’ Class of Distinguished Fellows was founded to recognize and preserve the history of professional grant proposal writers, grant managers, and grant development professionals. The Class of Distinguished Fellows includes individuals who have raised the level of awareness in the grant profession through their distinguished achievement and excellence or through their contributions to the grant profession. The Fellows exemplify the highest standards of ethical conduct, moral character, and generous and fair behavior concerning the treatment of others.”

My stepmom, Julie, got up and gave a wonderful speech when accepting the award.

I am here today with two of our daughters, Julie Asregadoo and Maya Wells, and two of our grandchildren, Chloe Jahncke and Justin Jahncke. Our other daughter, Melissa Wells is back in Portland and unable to join us today, but is here with us in spirit.

On behalf of all the members of Michael’s family I want to say that we are thrilled beyond belief at this extraordinary acknowledgment of Michael’s lifelong career in the grants profession.

I wish Michael could be here in person to accept this amazing honor.  After my Mom died, I would often say to him, “I wish I could tell my mom that.” He would always say “You can tell her!”

Well, I have taken his advice and told him about today. I know he’s smiling with us right now!!

He loved bringing good people together to do important work. He often would come home and talk about the synergy that evolved at some particular meeting and the vision that emerged as the result. Connection is what fueled him and filled up his heart.

Michael was the personification of human decency. He carried a little card in his wallet for years. It is a quote by Henri Nouwen:

“The discipline of gratitude is the explicit effort to acknowledge that all I am and have is given to me as a gift of love, a gift to be celebrated with joy.”

The very best way we can continue to honor Michael beyond today is to celebrate the values that he believed in and lived each day of his life: honesty, integrit, humility, compassion.

If each of us makes an effort to incorporate these values into our life and work, we WILL keep his sweet memory alive.

It was an amazing morning, and we were so greatful for this recognition of his talents and his humanity. My favorite part of my stepmom’s speech was: “Michael was the personfication of human decency.” Absolutely true, and we loved it. We were in DC from Thursday to Sunday…I’ll fill you in on the next few days, too.