Profile in Leadership – a conversation with Hank Warren

​Paul Pickett

Hank Warren

I recently sat down in the Port Angeles Library with Hank Warren, activist, Precinct Committee Officer, and a long-time member of the Clallam Democrats Executive Board, where he now serves as a Trustee for District 2.

Hank’s eyes sparkled with a smile as he handed me his resumé. “I wanted you to have this to help you.” Hank has lived with his wife of 66 years, Raedell, for 50 years in Washington, of which 46 were in Port Angeles. He retired from the National Park Service, with his last assignment as Chief Naturalist of Olympic National Park. 

Hank has just turned 88 years old. 

Tell me a bit about your past? Where did you grow up, where have you lived?
“I grew up in California – born in Oakland, raised in Lafayette” he begins. He worked in a grocery store in high school, and in his dad’s homebuilding business. He served in the Air Force for four years as a nuclear weapons specialist, and when he left IBM hired him as a Customer Engineer. But he wanted a change. “I grew up loving to hike in Yosemite. I decided I wanted to work for Parks instead of going to medical school.” 

That led to a job as a ranger at Armstrong Woods State Park. “A manager in the National Park Service said he’d hire me whenever I wanted to come over.” So after 2 years working with the State, Hank joined the Park Service. His career took him to Lassen Volcanic National Park, then to Mount McKinley National Park as Chief Naturalist, then to a position as Assistant Chief of Resource Interpretation for the Pacific Northwest Regional Office, and finally to Olympic National Park and Port Angeles. He leaned forward and pointed at me: “I’ll tell you what made me a good employee – I was scrupulously honest!”


What led you to the Democratic Party? 
“We had a National Association of Federal Employees,” he explained. “They weren’t quite a union, but they’d track legislation and take pro/con positions on votes. It was pretty clear that the Democrats supported federal employees.” He mentioned that his grandmother was a cook for Earl Warren,  Governor of California and later Supreme Court Chief Justice. “I met him when he was Governor, and he treated me well.”

When he retired in 1995, Hank decided to get active. “I never let fear dominate me. I didn’t like what Republicans were doing. They only went after Democrats, and didn’t pursue good policies.” Hank focused on helping Democrat candidates. “The important thing” he emphasized with a smile and a jab of his fist, “is to be honest, hard-working, use good information, and vote your conscience.” 

What has been the highest point for you as a Democrat?
“When Biden beat Trump – I thought we’d shut this guy down,” he said. He observed that issues like immigration should be handled with compassion. “Mexican-Americans are humans, hard workers, but that’s not what the Republicans say.” He leaned back and looked at me intently. “Nobody at birth or as a young child got to choose their parents, their genetics or class, their family’s religion or politics, or their country of birth. Put yourself in the place of a child.”
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What leadership positions have you held in the past? How did that experience prepare you for your position with Clallam Dems?
Hank has held leadership positions with national professional organizations, the U.S. Power Squadron, the Port Angeles Yacht Club, and Kiwanis. “I learned how to negotiate – put yourself in their shoes.” 

There were also his management positions in the National Park Service, such as Chief Naturalist. “I’m a strong environmentalist. But I was not paid to fight; I got paid to help things happen.” He shared stories about ONP projects he worked on. Because the Federal funds for the archeology project at the Ozette were placed in the Park budget, Hank was assigned as liaison with the Tribes for compliance. "I worked with the Tribe, and at their request even helped hire Native staff. Honest trust - that's how you work with people."

He told a story of his wife’s boss at Olympic Medical Center. “I’m not supposed to be alive”, he began. “When I was 70 I had a heart attack while I was down in Arizona. My wife needed help to get me home, so her boss went to Arizona and drove me home.

What advice would you give to a volunteer thinking of taking on more responsibility in the Democrats?
“Do it, but don’t impose your viewpoint. Whatever you do, try to walk away friends.” He explained that people vote with friendship. “Continue to help – we all need to do something.”

How do we pass the legacy of the Democratic party to future generations?
“That worries me a lot” Hank responded. “Try to be a good person yourself, and listen to yourself. People are human, you don’t know what they went through. Be a nice guy yourself, and do nice things.”

He handed me a sheet with the policy objectives he supports. At the end of the list was his ‘take-away’ message: “Those who providence has smiled upon need to help those that providence didn’t smile upon if we are going to have true liberty and well being.”

Policy objectives Hank Warren supports:

1. I oppose Trump and gang of thugs whose goal is to make him dictator for life and to trash all programs that support the middle and lower classes and alienating our allies in favor of dictators.
   
2. I encourage the democratic party to reach out more actively to middle of the political spectrum, making sure that the middle class understands that we want them to survive as we want all Americans to survive and respect each other. Especially, until Trumpism is defeated, people need to understand that just not voting or voting for lessor parties to make a statement is not good enough at the moment to get rid of the devil in the white house.
3. I cherish scrupulously, kind behavior, based on objective scientific knowledge and judgement.
4. I believe business profit should be regarded as a reward for quality goods and services rendered to customers, and fair treatment of employes, who in turn owe employers and customer's mutual respect.
5. I endorse compassionate emigration that permits talented people or those that are willingly to fill positions that go empty now. But I oppose unlimited emigration because, like it or not, nature's systems have limited carrying capacities.
6. I support expanding Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. Everybody has a right to good health care and good education if they are willing to study hard for it. The rich should pay their fair share to pay for all the foregoing.
7. The country benefits when the country has good professional national, state and local civil services.

      Henry Warren