An Illustrious Public Servant

Our thoughts and prayers go out to all of those on the plane that crashed last night in Alaska, and to their family members.

I was especially saddened to see the name Sean O'Keefe among those listed as passengers, because prior to his work at EADS North America, he was one of the illustrious public servants of recent memory.

O'Keefe started his federal career in 1978 as a Presidential Management Intern. Then he worked as a Senate staffer for several years before serving as comptroller and chief financial officer at the Defense Department from 1989 to 1992. He went on to become Navy Secretary in the George H.W. Bush administration before taking a teaching position at Syracuse University's Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs.

At the beginning of the George W. Bush administration, O'Keefe served as deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget. In an unusual move, OMB centralized authority for federal management issues under O'Keefe. (Ordinarily, the agency's deputy director -- as opposed to its separate deputy director for management -- focused on the "B" side of the agency.) As a result, several key initiatives of the administration, such as an outsourcing effort, took on heightened importance.

O'Keefe, of course, later went on to head NASA, where he served until 2005, when he left to serve as chancellor of Louisiana State University.

Update, 4:22 p.m.: It looks like O'Keefe survived the crash.