A Model Public Servant

The world of public administration and accountability in government lost a giant this weekend.

Elmer B. Staats, a longtime public servant whose federal career culminated in a 15-year stint as Comptroller General of the United States and head of the General Accounting Office, died of congestive heart failure at Sibley Hospital in Washington. He was 97.

According to a GAO release, Staats started his career in 1939 at the Bureau of the Budget, now the Office of Management and Budget. He ended up serving at the agency under Presidents Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson. In 1966, Johnson named him to head GAO, where he served until 1981.

After his service at GAO, Staats became president and later chairman of the board of trustees of the Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation. He was a member of the Governmental Accounting Standards Board from 1984 to 1990.

Staats also was active in a variety of good government organizations. He was president of the American Society for Public Administration and was one of the founding members of the National Academy of Public Administration in 1967.

"I had the pleasure of working with Elmer for a number of years here at GAO," said current Comptroller General Gene L. Dodaro. "He was a strong advocate of constructive change and good government principles. His intelligence, dedication, and integrity were legendary in Washington. If anyone could be called a model public servant, it was Elmer."

Staats "was one of the great public servants during the World War II and postwar era," said Charles Bowsher, who succeeded him as comptroller general in 1981. "His leadership at both the Bureau of the Budget and GAO for over 30 years was never matched by anyone else in the 20th century."

GAO announced that in Staats' honor, flags in front of the agency's headqurters will be flown at half staff. A private family funeral will take place next week, and a memorial service in Washington is planned for Sept. 10.