Public Servants Throughout History – What’s Their Motivation?

This article was previously published on Dr. James Goydos' website May 2021.

I consider a public servant to be someone who works for the public good, either as part of the government or on their own. I do not include elected officials above the municipal level in this definition as few State and National politicians run for office because they are altruistic. Altruism is the hallmark of a true public servant, though it doesn’t have to be the main reason a person makes this choice.

All of my adult life I have worked as an academic physician, first for UMDNJ, and more recently for Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. Over those 25 years I earned less than half the income of my colleagues in private practice and worked longer hours than most (though not all).

I remained a public servant because I enjoyed the work, I felt I was filling a community need, and I wanted to be involved in teaching the next generation of physicians.

These were my reasons for choosing public service over private practice. Others have their own reasons for choosing a public service job, but I believe a bit of altruism is always part of the equation.

So, are people who choose public service actually making a difference, or are we just chumps, manipulated into our jobs by unscrupulous corporations and politicians?

To answer this question, I offer the following examples of public servants who changed the world:

Pietro Angelerio took a job he didn't want to help right wrongs

In 1292 Pope Nicholas IV died, and the Catholic cardinals assembled at the town of Perugia to choose his successor. However, after more than two years the cardinals were unable to come to a consensus. At the time there was a famous Benedictine monk by the name of Pietro Angelerio who was living as a hermit on Mt. Morrone.

He was a devout Catholic and outstanding teacher and mentor to junior clergy, but he had no aspirations beyond living his ascetic life. However, after over two years without the cardinals being able to elect a new Pope, Pietro wrote a letter to the cardinals warning them that divine vengeance would fall upon them if they did not quickly elect a pope. Upon reading this letter the cardinals decided to elect Pietro Pope by a unanimous vote.

When he heard the news, Pietro refused to accept the papacy and tried to flee. He was hunted down and finally persuaded by the cardinals, the King of Naples, and the Ruler of Hungary to accept the papacy as Celestine V. He took office on July 5, 1294 and ruled for approximately five months. During this time, he tried to reform the church but most of his edicts were overturned by his successor.

The two things he did accomplish were to reform the way the Church elected the Pope (a system used to this day), and establish the right for a Pope to resign, which he did on December 13, 1294. He resigned even though he knew he would be imprisoned by his successor, and he died in prison 10 months later at the age of 81.

The consummate public servant, Celestine V took a job he didn’t want in order to fix its problems, and then resigned to let someone else take the glory.

Norman Borlaug's work saved over a billion lives

Another example of a public servant who left his mark on history is Norman Borlaug. Borlaug was an American agronomist who graduated from the University of Minnesota with a BS in forestry in 1937 and a PhD in plant pathology and genetics in 1942. Instead of taking a job in the booming field of agribusiness, he instead set out on his own.

His reason for choosing a different path was that he realized something 25 years before anyone else: What will happen when the world’s population grows at a faster rate than the production of food?

He concluded that millions of people could die of starvation, and so he set out to find a solution. He obtained a grant from the Cooperative Mexican Agricultural Program, sponsored by the Mexican government and the Rockefeller Foundation, and set up a research station in the Yaqui Valley in Sonora, Mexico.

This area of Mexico was very inhospitable for wheat production but through close observation and cross breeding, Borlaug was able to develop a new dwarf wheat variety that produced large amounts of grain, resisted diseases, and was resistant to stalk breakage by the wind, a problem that made other high-yielding grains unworkable.

Starting in the early 1960s, Borlaug began traveling all over the world, including India and Pakistan, convincing governments to adopt his new wheat variety.

In 1968, biologist Paul Ehrlich published a book called “The Population Bomb” warning that populations were growing more quickly than food supplies. He predicted that hundreds of millions of people were going to starve to death, going as far as to state that the entire Indian subcontinent would be dead before 1980. This didn’t happen because of a public servant by the name of Norman Borlaug who is credited with saving over a billion lives worldwide, more than any other human in history.

Public servants are unsung heroes

My third example is someone closer to home. He was a patient of mine who was a music and math teacher at a high school in one of the more dangerous sections of Newark, New Jersey. I met this gentleman when he was 68 years old and still teaching, even though he could have retired at age 65 with a full pension and benefits. He also had enough seniority and education to become a principal or even superintendent in any school district in the State.

However, he felt his students needed him, and he was dedicated to the mission of giving every child a chance to succeed. Indeed, many of his former pupils went on to Julliard and Ivy League Universities, many on music scholarships. The last I heard he had finally retired at the age of 70 and now gives private tutoring to inner city students.

Everyone chooses public service as their career choice for different reasons. However, as I’ve demonstrated with these three examples, altruism, wanting to help fix a wrong, keeping people from starving to death, or just giving everyone the chance to succeed is why most of us choose public service over private employment. They are unsung heroes who prefer to remain unsung as the satisfaction they obtain from their work is all they need.

About Dr. James Goydos

Dr. James Goydos is an expert in melanoma research and specialist in surgical oncology with an M.D. from Rutgers University. With over 20 years of experience as a Professor, Surgeon, and Clinical Trial Lead, he is a leading expert in his field.

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