An Oral History of the ERC

Ethics Resource Center 2003
Hy Krieger

Notes from a presentation by former treasurer Hy Krieger to the ERC staff

ERC began organizational life in 1922 as American Viewpoint, which provided education to adult immigrants about citizenship and values. Chartered by the New York Board of Regents, in New York, American Viewpoint worked with school systems in the NYC area to educate immigrants on everything from health practices to the American political system.

During the 1940's and 50's, American Viewpoint became more involved with promoting patriotism and sponsored a comic book style publication highlighting American heroes. The primary role of the individual who was running American Viewpoint at the time was to visit schools around the country and speak on the "issues of country". The organization was relatively dormant during this period.

In the 1960's, Ivan Hill, an entrepreneur from Chicago who was passionate about ethics and patriotism became interested in supporting the work of American Viewpoint. He conceived of the Ethics Resource Center as a project of American Viewpoint.

As the financier and "unpaid, volunteer" president of American Viewpoint, Mr. Hill took the office to the University of North Carolina, largely because Luther Hodges, who was an advocate for business ethics, was the governor of North Carolina at that time. (Mr. Hodges went on to become U.S. Secretary of Commerce under President Kennedy)

Mr. Hill brought on board Jack Bernham, who was an International Corporate Ethics Advisor, and Max Chopnick, who served as a Board member for more than 50 years. He wrote "Common Sense and Everyday Ethics" and had it sent to "every university" in the country, also wrote "The Ethical Basis of Economic Freedom, " a collection of essays by scholars, business leaders and public officials that served as a primer on the vital nexus between ethics and economics. (One can still orrder "The Ethical Basis of Economic Freedom" through Amazon at: http://www.ethics.org/resources/book_detail.cfm?ID=715

In the 1970's, American Viewpoint moved to Washington, DC -- a reaction to the Watergate scandal -- and, Mr. Hill himself actually moved into the Watergate building, where his family worked as volunteers for the organization. Mr. Hill felt that it was important to have an "elite" board and recruited a number of CEO and Chairmen of Boards. From 1981-1995, the board was largely made up of CEO's from this legacy. It was also during this time that the organization began to foster relationships primarily with leaders in academia and business.

In 1982, the name was changed officially to the Ethics Resource Center. Also during the 1980's, work started on the "Ethics at Work Series", a video product that is still available for purchase. The series dealt with things people do in business and was intended to be a vehicle for discussion of many of the same issues we deal with today. Out of this series grew the ERC's involvement as the independent evaluator for the Defense Industry Initiative.

In the late 1980's to early 1990's, the ERC moved into character education, with major funding from McKee Foods, who sponsored the original "Not For Sale" video project and the Baltimore City Schools project. Gary Edwards became ERC President in 1983, with Ivan Hill serving as President Emeritus. Staff at that time included two additional employees. This era also saw the early beginnings of an ERC Fellows Program, although at that time the ERC invited faculty to Washington DC for a summer and facilitated their research, providing them with contacts and resources.

Hy Krieger had professional experience in ethics through his work with the Government Accounting Office, where he was managing operations at the time of the 1978 Ethics in Government Act. The Office of Government Ethics (OGE) was established by Act and was originally part of the Office of Personnel Management. As a GAO employee at the time, Mr. Krieger remembers that the concept seemed almost alien to Congress at the time, and that the Washington Post declared because of the financial disclosure provisions, no one would be willing to serve in government.

In 1981, after retiring from the government, he met Ivan Hill and Gary Edwards and they encouraged him to volunteer one day a week with ERC. Eventually, he came on full time, still as a "volunteer", acting as Treasurer for the organization. For the past seven years he has been working with the Montgomery County Public Schools on program management.

"Humankind has struggled with these issues since the beginning of time," he noted, "and will continue to do so after we're gone." He told the current ERC staff that he was impressed with the number and breadth of current ERC projects and the enthusiasm of the staff, noting that ERC approach still is and has always been to identify and focus on the values of a particular organization, not values that the ERC provides.