{"id":58939,"date":"2015-03-27T07:30:11","date_gmt":"2015-03-27T11:30:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=58939"},"modified":"2015-03-27T08:46:38","modified_gmt":"2015-03-27T12:46:38","slug":"a-leaders-last-gift","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=58939","title":{"rendered":"A Leader’s Last Gift"},"content":{"rendered":"

Earlier this year, Dean Smith \u2013 former basketball coach at North Carolina \u2013 died. He was just short of his 84th birthday.<\/p>\n

Smith had suffered from dementia prior to his death. Regardless, in his will Smith still remembered his former players. <\/p>\n

Smith’s will directed the executor of his estate to send a check \u2013 in the amount of $200 \u2013 to each player who\u2019d lettered for him during his career<\/i><\/a>. Approximately 180 players had done that during Smith’s coaching career. <\/p>\n

The ostensible purpose of the gift? So that his former players could “enjoy a dinner out compliments of Coach Dean Smith.”<\/p>\n

Nice indeed. But maybe you’re wondering, “Why is this here at TAH?”<\/p>\n

Yeah, you guessed it: Smith was a veteran \u2013 and a former officer<\/i><\/a>. At the University of Kansas he was a member of Air Force ROTC. After receiving his degree he was commissioned. He served in Germany during the 1950s as a Lieutenant, and also coached at the Air Force Academy.<\/p>\n

Good leaders know that their success depends on their people; they take care of their subordinates. I\u2019m guessing Dean Smith learned that while in the military. It also looks like he never forgot it, in spite of his dementia.<\/p>\n

Very classy, Mr. Smith. Rest in peace.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Earlier this year, Dean Smith \u2013 former basketball coach at North Carolina \u2013 died. He was just short of his 84th birthday. Smith had suffered from dementia prior to his death. Regardless, in his will Smith still remembered his former players. Smith’s will directed the executor of his estate to send a check \u2013 in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":623,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[187,75],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-58939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-air-force","category-blue-skies"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4ozh1-fkD","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/623"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=58939"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58939\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=58939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=58939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=58939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}