Elliott Berry - Retired but Still Leading by Example
From the Radical Centrist and NH Secrets Podcasts.
Listen here:
https://feeds.podetize.com/wZ87AkHlp.mp3
Elliott Berry recently retired after nearly fifty years in the same job as a lawyer for New Hampshire Legal Assistance. I hesitate to even identify his job this way because the trail that Elliott Berry has blazed over those years has burnished a reputation and accomplishments across the country.
While Elliott chose New Hampshire as the venue for his life's work as an advocate for low-income families, his service and impact have been broadly hailed for creating innovative solutions to daunting problems, especially around homelessness and affordable housing.
The show notes for this podcast highlight his legal achievements, but just as important, especially in today's environment, is the man behind the achievements: his humanity, his search for common ground, and his willingness - really eagerness - to share the joys of success with others who stood with him over the years.
It is a rare person who elicits such admiration from both those who fought beside him as well as those who (at least began) on the other side of the battle.
I know all too well these things about Berry, who served as a mentor to me when I was a New Hampshire State Representative and State Senator in the 1980s and 1990s. We fought side by side to create the very first funding to address homelessness, and to establish legal rights for tenants facing eviction.
A landmark law creating a "Right to Purchase" option for tenants of manufactured housing parks would become a national model and today boasts thousands of such tenant-owned parks throughout the country. Both Wayne and Elliott were founding board members of the NH Community Loan Fund - along with Director Juliana Eades. The Loan Fund - and especially the "Right to Purchase" innovation has blossomed into a national movement for tenant-owned cooperatives.
Any conversation with Elliott Berry can't ignore that he is not only a giant in his own right but also part of a progressive power couple from the last fifty years - alongside his wife Campbell Harvey who in 1981 founded the state's very first all female law practice and was the author of New Hamphire's Domestic Violence statute.
We hope to have the chance to interview Campbell soon, but word is that she is a far more private person and may require some convincing.
It has been a great honor in my life to work with Elliott Berry. To me his work is summed up best by the words of the Chinese Philosopher Lau-Tzu:
The Best Leader
A leader is best
When people barely know
That he exists,
Less good when
They obey and acclaim him,
Worse when
They fear and despise him.
Fail to honor people
And they fail to honor you.
But of a good leader,
When his work is done,
His aim fulfilled,
they will all say,
'We did this ourselves.’
Lao-Tzu
Chinese philosopher
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