Photo credit: Janet Donovan
Our heart goes out to Big Bird who didn’t make the appearance cut at “The Silver Salute” – a festive evening in honor of Sharon Percy Rockefeller’s 25th Anniversary as President and CEO of WETA at the Ritz-Carlton in Washington, DC where Clifford The Big Red Dog and The Cookie Monster from WETA Kids were schmoozing with Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Alan Greenspan, former Chairman of the Federal Reserve.
Clifford The Big Red Dog
The Cookie Monster
“The core mission of PBS is to provide the highest quality in programming – programming that educates and inspires. Sharon, I want to thank you so much for carrying on that progress. Congratulations again, and I look forward to seeing all that you continue to achieve in the years ahead.” Michelle Obama’s remote introduction to the evening’s program.
The fundraising goal of a million dollars doubled, with funds designated to a leader’s program for excellence. The whole Rockefeller and Percy clan were there: Sharon and her husband Senator Jay Rockefeller; their children John, Valerie, Charles and Justin with their spouses; their grandchildren Lauren and Sophie, Mrs. Charles Percy and other members of the Percy and Rockefeller families.
WETA was founded over 50 years ago on October 2, 1961 by Washington Publisher Willard Kiplinger and Elizabeth Campbell and were subsequently joined by a group of visionaries who recognized that television was an exciting new technology that should be used to educate and inspire the public to serve rather than sell. The families of both Kiplinger and Campbell were present.
Austin Kiplinger, The Kiplinger Letters with Bonnie Nicholson
The evening was a Sharon Rockefeller love fest. “She is the point of the spear for all of us who care about news and public affairs,” said Gwen Ifill of The NewsHour. “She is just as fierce when she it comes to her adopted state of West Virginia. I personally saw her button-hold the President of the United States to have his library there and the next week they made the announcement. They call that the Sharon effect. We are grateful for the Sharon effect and we are not the only ones. Your passion for public television and for a free press really has persuaded other people to be supportive. You have urged us on, you have stiffened our backbone. The NewsHour would not be where we are today without you. We all thank you from the bottom of our hearts.”
Gwen Ifill, moderator and managing editor of Washington Week and co-anchor and co-managing editor with Judy Woodruff of PBS NewsHour
“Sharon Rockefeller has led us not only into the production of innumerable programs for the public of the United States, but she has led us into the modern area of digital media and has established WETA not just as a viable station in the nation’s capital but as a major content producer for PBS nationwide. Sharon has a heart of gold and a mind like a trap. Once she gets out on a project to enhance public broadcasting just get out of her way, fall in behind her, and go along for the ride. What am I talking about? The creation of 90.0 FM classic radio, classic music station. That’s all Sharon. This last year, the acquisition of the PBS News Hour and with respect to all these major undertakings, she insists that they always be funded in advance. WETA’s now in the strongest position because of Sharon. Please join me in thanking her for her first twenty-five years as president and CEO of WETA.”
“I’m supposed to say something about a television program called Downtown Abbey,” said Peter Westmacott, Ambassador of United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland after being introduced. “There’s not a lot I can add to a series which has won more Emmy nominations, I think, than any other British television show in history. I think probably it has attracted more viewers than any other British series broadcast by PBS. Of course that series has given us so much pleasure, but there are lots and lots of other programs which we are really proud to share with viewers on WETA. On any given evening, thanks to the remarkable efforts and leadership of Sharon Rockefeller, viewers here in Washington can watch anything.”
Amb. Peter Westmacott chats with Judy Woodruff
“WETA is becoming one of America’s most distinguished and successful public broadcasting institutions,” he added. “They have incredible programs from PBS’s NewsHour to Ken Burn’s brilliant documentaries. I’d just like to say how proud I am, especially since the introduction of The Jewel in the Crown, of WETA UK, that British program has been such a great part of that success. So thank you Sharon for making it possible. Thank you for the excuse for tonight’s celebration, congratulations to everybody who has played a part in making these extraordinary programs, and thank you Sharon and others at WETA for proving that British and Americans are two people joined, not divided, by one language. Is there any better way of summing up the quality than what we are here to celebrate this evening? Thank you WETA for including me in the activities, thank you in particular for the twenty- five years of wonderful service you have given and we all look forward to the next quarter century.”
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Ken Burns, Documentary Filmmaker: “Carson McCullers (think The Heart is a Lonely Hunter) wrote a wonderful novel called The Member of a Wedding and I’ve been thinking about it lately after marrying off my second daughter last Saturday. In that the protagonist, a young humble looking housekeeper, is anxious that her older brother, the one getting married, is going to have something that she wants more than anything else. She calls it “the we of me.” Every single one of those films I have produced in my professional life for public television are the we of me. Every one of those films has had the partnership of WETA involved in some way or another. I could not have done any of these films without Sharon’s extraordinary partnership. It is a group effort. But that’s not really why I’m up here. I’m up here because she is a beautiful friend of mine. She had been an amazing friend and colleague and confidant. She has a vision that she shares with everyone. That brings me to the final reason I stand before you; she’s also one of the most courageous human beings I’ve ever met. She has emerged from her own extraordinarily struggle with cancer and you have to admire that perseverance and the extraordinary feature in her which is this courage. Eleanor Roosevelt said, “Everyday we should get up and do something with ourselves.” I think the thing I want to take away from a decades long friendship with this remarkable woman is that her generosity, her smarts in anything has also given the us day to day courage and it’s going to be better tomorrow. Sharon, it is better tomorrow and I love you. Thank you.”
Philanthropist David Rubenstein (R)
Chairman of “The Silver Salute” David Rubenstein: “Now we are told that in the beginning, God created heaven and earth in six days and rested on the seventh. Now, even people mocking him say that’s probably a pretty impressive accomplishment. Actually, when you think about it, God doesn’t have to deal with daughters, God didn’t really have to deal with producers, God didn’t have to deal with employees, and God didn’t have to deal with all of these people and …so actually when you come to think of it, what Sharon has done over the last 25 years is maybe more impressive than creating heaven and earth. I will tell you the secret I will reveal tonight. They told me it was okay to say ‘when God created’ certain people he said to certain people, ‘You are allowed to build your life without any sleep.’ Certain people don’t have any ability or need to sleep and Sharon was obviously one of them. How can anybody do all of those things in just 18 hours a day? She uses 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. And all of us in the Washington area, all of us are very much in her debt for everything she has done for society. And I want to call her up now so we can have a conversation with her and ask her how she has done all of these things.”
Guests dined while Rubenstein and Rockefeller carried on a ‘fireside chat’…..Hollywood on the Potomac was a guest of Corporation of Public Broadcasting‘s Ciao Italia table:
Laura Denise and Amb. of Italy, Claudio Bisogniero
Elsewhere, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Senator Jay Rockefeller, Kate and Jim Lehrer, Judy Woodruff and Al Hunt, Senator Ed Markey, Ken Burns held court:
Senator Jay Rockefeller with Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Senator Ed Markey
Highlights from the conversation between David Rubenstein and Sharon Rockefeller:
Sharon on coming into the world: “My sister was born and all of a sudden, I dropped out onto the floor. They didn’t expect a second baby. They didn’t know there were going to be twins. We were in incubators for 4 months.”
David: “Growing up in Chicago, did you say I expect to spend 25 years as a CEO?”
Sharon: “I would say in those days, men were the CEOs. I duly sensed that. Even in third grade my sister and I noticed a difference and decided to make up for that.”
On education: “Stanford to me was liberation. I remember thinking, oh my God, this is heaven on earth, this really is. I thought, okay, perfect, done, decision made. (She was 13 at the time of the visit) We went to the admissions office, and I said, ‘I would like to apply.’ They said, ‘Well, you’re a little on the young side.’ I said, ‘Well, what could I do about that?’ They said, ‘Well, you could send me your grades every single year and then we’ll consider you when you’re a senior in high school’ so I did that.”
David: “You obviously liked the experience. When you moved back, and you met your husband to be, did he say he was going into a life of politics in West Virginia? Did he tell you that?”
Sharon: “I wouldn’t say there was full disclosure. I’d say we avoided the issue to keep the peace. I don’t know, we didn’t ask each other any hard questions. It’s probably just as well.”
David: “When you became CEO of WETA, did you realize you had to ask for money and that your name was Rockefeller?”
Sharon: “My father’s answer to that was ‘I thought my daughter married a Rockefeller, so why is she always asking for so much money?'”
David on the influence of her parents: “When you were growing up in Chicago, your father was a very prominent business person and became a United States Senator. Did he instill in you a sense of public service?”
Sharon: “My mother died when I was two, almost three. My father was 29. He was very hands on…..was very very organized. He was very inclusive which meant you were half way down the road.”
David on the death of her sister: “Your sister died tragically, how did you deal with that?”
Sharon: “Our family was raised in Christian Science and religion was very very important to us. So every single morning we would read our lessons before we went to school. The first wave was try not to doubt your faith. The second wave was that Jay had just joined our family. Everyone clung to Jay as a unifying force and he really helped our family.”
David: “When you met Jay Rockefeller, was it love at first site? Never mind, I already asked your mother and she said yes.”
David on cancer: “Was that a surprise that happened and how did you cope with that and do the jobs that you had?”
Sharon: “That threw me for a loop, it really, really did. I want to thank all my friends from Hopkins who are here for getting me through that. My Calamity Jane stories get tiresome after a certain point, but I did not think I was going to die from it. I always thought, I’ll just manage and get through it.” And she did.
