Thomas McFee, Staffing Chief At Health And Human Services, 75
DGH
Thomas S. McFee, the former assistant secretary for personnel
administration at the Department of Health and Human Services, died of
pancreatic cancer June 14, 2006, at Montgomery General Hospital in
Olney, Maryland, having lived in Ashton, Maryland, at the age of 75.
As the department's personnel leader for 18 years, Mr. McFee was often
in the news.
In 1977, he supported a policy that allowed the agency's purchasing
officers to stand up to top agency officials who wanted to violate the
rules. "You've got the problem where the procurement man quotes the
rule and some Nobel laureate who runs the office says he doesn't care.
We want the procurement officer to know that he can blow the whistle
and he'll be backed up," he said.
In 1989, he warned that federal salaries were falling behind the
private sector's. "The brain drain is ongoing. It has been occurring
for the last five or six years as the federal salary slips further and
further behind," he said.
In The Washington Post's Federal Diary column in 1984, Mr. McFee was
lauded with the headline "How to Run a RIF!"for managing to eliminate
1,264 jobs from the department secretary's office without a layoff. The
reduction was accomplished with early retirements, a hiring freeze and
by placing dismissed workers in other departments.
He served under seven Cabinet secretaries and in 1980 helped launch the
Candidate Development Program of the Senior Executive Service, which
sought to find and train the next generation of leaders for top-ranked
jobs in government service.
Among his honors were the National Public Service Award from the
American Society for Public Administration and the National Academy of
Public Administration in 2004, the NCAC/Government Executive magazine
Leadership Award in 1993, American University's Roger W. Jones Award
for Executive Leadership in 1991 and the Presidential Meritorious Rank
Award in 1982. In retirement, he was the recipient of the public
administration society's Keeper of the Flame award.
He was born Thomas Stuart McFee in Milwaukee and graduated from the
University of Maryland. He taught school briefly in the Montgomery
County system before serving with the Air Force as an education and
communications officer.
In 1958, Mr. McFee worked at the David Taylor Model Basin, where he led
the systems analysis branch in the operations research division. He
moved to the Defense Department in 1962, then three years later became
technical assistant to the president's science adviser in the Office of
Science and Technology.
He joined what was then the Department of Health, Education and Welfare
in 1967 as director of systems development, later becoming deputy
assistant secretary for management planning and technology until he got
the personnel job. He retired in 1995.
He was an elder, deacon and Bible study teacher at the Church of Christ
in Olney. He was elected a fellow of the National Academy of Public
Administration and was past president of the public administration
society's National Capital Area.
Survivors include his wife of 54 years, Mary Virginia McFee of Ashton;
three sons, Richard McFee of Friendswood, Texas, John McFee of Boerne,
Texas, and Charles McFee of Clarksville; a brother; eight
grandchildren; and a great-granddaughter.
Washington Post