Farewell to a Personnel Giant

We just published an obituary I wrote about Tom McFee, former assistant secretary for personnel administration at HHS, who died Wednesday. The piece gives a brief rundown on his illustrious career, but here's what it doesn't say: that Tom McFee was one of those people who went out of his way to try to help those of us in the media do a better job of reporting on government.

When I started covering the federal civil service system for Government Executive almost 17 years ago, I was completely ignorant of the subject. Lots of people around Washington gave me the same advice: "Talk to Tom McFee." They were right. When it came to personnel matters, Tom had seen and done it all, and he was patient and kind about sharing his knowledge. There are a whole bunch of us around town who benefited from his dedication and generosity.