Jerry never quit the good fight. Now that good fight is ours.

Growing human potential through leadership development is critical to save our home planet during these?days of exponential change and disruption- particularly, with the global rise?of authoritarian leaders.

My younger brother Jerry was an American original- one of a kind on the level of Thomas Alva Edison as an inventor and a genius …on the level of Warren Buffett as an enlightened business leader.

As a leadership professor, I knew that you can’t lead until you know where you are going. Jerry always knew where he was going … and he led with conviction, humility, courage, and a force of will. One of the structures that I taught a generation of leaders about I first saw implemented brilliantly by my brother … the “to-do” list. Jerry said most people operated at a 10-15% capacity; over many years daily use, he saw his own capacity grow to 85% and more.

Jerry believed in the unlimited capacity of the human spirit …?the unlimited potential of people.

In the area of civic service – locally and globally – Jerry was second to none. He believed strongly in Edmund Burke’s dictum that “all that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.”

Jerry raised the cry and rallied the forces for good people to stand with him in many causes for world peace and understanding. Jerry was a most distinguished global citizen – a fighter for the common good and for the right.

He truly lived service above self … and the lives of hundreds of thousands of people around our world are better today because Jerry was with us to fight on their behalf … and he yearned to do more.

In the last few months of his life, it had been my good fortune to be able to spend much quality time with my brother, Jerry, and his immediate loving family.

I had looked forward to seeing Jerry again that week … but he was no longer available to talk. Dell, one of my brother’s excellent caregivers, pulled me aside the day Jerry died and said your brother had a message for you: Jerry said he was proud of you and what you had done with your life. I didn’t know how important hearing those words was to me until I woke up the next morning … and realized how difficult it had been to grow up as the older brother of such an amazing younger brother. Even at the end, Jerry said the words that I most needed to hear from him.

With humility, courage, and persistence, Jerry taught me that?anything was possible … and with his last breaths he fought to achieve results for important projects for our nation and our world that still needed to happen -- still needed to be done … now without Jerry’s presence to champion them.

Jerry never quit the good fight. Now that good fight is ours.