Staffers followed Ted Kennedy on path of public service

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Edward Kennedy's legacy lives on in the nation's schools, in its health clinics and at its courthouses. Those who worked with him during his 47 years in the Senate say he bestowed another important and enduring gift: an infectious commitment to public service.

From Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer and White House domestic policy adviser Melody Barnes to the hundreds of lesser-known former Kennedy staffers and campaign volunteers who followed him into public service, Kennedy left a mark on government, in academia, at non-profits and service groups across the nation.

"Senator Kennedy has done as much as any leader to create a culture of service and civic engagement in our country," says Alan Solomont of the Corporation for National and Community Service, which oversees the government-funded domestic service program, AmeriCorps.

In April, President Obama signed a new law bearing Kennedy's name to create opportunities for community service, including by offering tax incentives to businesses that give workers time off for service.

The Edward M. KennedyServe America Act, Obama said, was inspired by Kennedy's life, and the president exhorted all Americans to "take up that spirit of the man for whom this bill is named."

Those who worked with Kennedy over the years did just that, many in politics and government at a time when politicians and government "bureaucrats" often were derided. Among them:

•David Blumenthal, the Obama administration's health information technology coordinator, who worked on health issues for Kennedy in the 1970s and served in Massachusetts as his on-the-road physician during Kennedy's 1980 campaign for president.

Blumenthal says Kennedy didn't have his brothers' "aura" of public service as a young man, but as he "grew in dignity so enormously" later in life, he began to serve as an example to younger generations.

"He was always youthful in spirit," Blumenthal says. "He was never threatened by young people coming along, so he played that mentoring role."

•Ronald Weich, the Justice Department's assistant attorney general for legislative affairs, who worked for Kennedy as a law student in 1980 and returned in 1990 to work for seven years on health and legal issues.

"Working for him, I became deeply invested in issues of fairness and equal justice and rule of law, and I never gave up on those issues," Weich says. "He was en extremely inspiring figure."

•Boston City Councilor Rob Consalvo, who worked in Kennedy's Washington office from 1991 to 1994.

"You could see how much he cared about people and changing people's lives," Consalvo says. "When you saw that, you couldn't help but be inspired. It really cemented for me that I also wanted to run for public office someday. … He gave off that essence that what we were doing was right and noble."

Says Kennedy's former press secretary and speechwriter Bob Shrum: "The alumni of his office pepper the government. But more than that, I think he inspired not just people who worked for him but knew him as a public figure. … He appealed to people's best instincts."