2007 John Phillips Award Recipient

Ken Bacon's remarks

Citation for Kenneth H. Bacon '62
Awarded at assembly on October 9, 2007

Ken Bacon—Seven years ago, with the credentials and experience to accept any number of comfortable positions in Washington D.C., you took the opportunity to invest your talents in advocating for the 35 million people on this earth who have been displaced by war and humanitarian crises. Your decision was based on first-hand observation of refugees’ suffering and a fundamental belief that individuals can unite to be effective agents for change. As the president of Refugees International and a leader in such efforts, you have directed your commitment to the principle of non sibi toward serving those who have neither personal resources nor public voices to help themselves.

Your now-very-international life began in Amherst, Massachusetts, where your father was a dean at Amherst College. You credit your parents with teaching you to engage with the world and resist simply taking things as you find them. In 1959, you entered Exeter as a lower, and without premonition of your future as a journalist, you joined the Exonian board as business manager, encountered the poetry of Robert Frost, and tuned in to the social linguistics of Pete Seeger’s music. You have said you appreciated the teaching, intellectual adventure and high standards at Exeter, where you gained confidence that you could survive any test, including speeches to hostile audiences and tight deadlines. In 1966, having earned a B.A. from Amherst, you took a summer job with The Wall Street Journal and knew right away it was kismet. After earning advanced degrees in journalism and business from Columbia University, spending a year as legislative assistant to New Hampshire Senator Thomas McIntyre and going through Army Basic Combat Training, you began a 25-year career as a reporter, editor and columnist for The Wall Street Journal in Washington. 

While covering the Pentagon, you met William Perry, who later became secretary of defense and encouraged you to take a job in his department. From 1994 to 2001 you served as assistant secretary of defense, advising top officials on public affairs strategy and serving as Pentagon spokesman.  The New York Times said: “Mr. Bacon stood behind the Pentagon lectern daily delivering the news, both good and bad, in impeccable grammar, and becoming an internationally recognized American military figure with his bow tie and wire-rimmed glasses.” It was on a government trip to the Balkans in 1999 that you first visited a refugee camp and were struck by the magnitude of that displaced population. You followed the successful international effort to shelter, feed and eventually repatriate nearly a million Kosovars and wondered if similar success might be possible for other displaced populations such as those in the Congo, Afghanistan and Sudan. The opportunity to devote your energies and experience to that possibility arose when you became president of Refugees International in 2001.

Refugees International, or R.I., was founded in 1979 as a “global voice for the world’s dispossessed” in response to the Cambodian refugee crisis. Today it remains true to its mission while operating as an efficient and effective organization that is almost unique in its independence from government or United Nations funding. R.I.’s small staff of trained field officers makes direct contact with refugee groups around the world. They observe and analyze the issues specific to each region, act as witnesses to often unrecognized suffering and injustice, and advocate through multiple channels for specific solutions to be put into effect by governments and humanitarian organizations. The typical R.I. assessment mission costs less than $15,000 to execute but often leverages millions of dollars of critical aid as well as beneficial policies for refugees. During your tenure as its president, Refugees International has been named one of America’s 100 best charities by WORTH magazine and has played a critical role in turning the world’s attention toward humanitarian crises in Darfur, Afghanistan, Angola and Uganda, among others. One of the organization’s top priorities today is to mitigate the growing refugee crisis in Iraq.

Ken, when you could have chosen to step away from the fray or into a position that promised personal gain, you chose instead to pursue solving one of humanity’s most persistent and daunting problems. To all of us here who look to your example of non sibi, and to so many abroad who cannot know whence comes their hope for a better life, the road you chose has made all the difference. Therefore, it is Exeter’s great honor and pleasure to present you the 2007 John Phillips Award.

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