Bill Clinton recalls close friend, adviser
Brandeis speech kicks off lecture at school
WALTHAM - Although his wife's presidential bid is heating up, former president Bill Clinton barely referenced the presidential race yesterday in a speech at Brandeis University.
Instead, he spoke about his close friend and former adviser, the late Eli J. Segal.
"I was just thinking all over again what an astonishing human being he was," Clinton told the crowd.
"He had a quality that was relatively rare in public service, government service, at the time. He could take a vision and turn it into a reality."
Clinton's speech kicked off a lecture series that is part of the school's new Eli J. Segal Citizen Leadership Program. Segal, architect of AmeriCorps and the Welfare to Work programs, died last year from a rare form of cancer. He was 63. His wife, Phyllis, a Brandeis alum like her late husband, helped found the program, which will promote service and citizen leadership and offer student fellowships.
In video footage of an interview with Segal aired at yesterday's event, Segal said he met Clinton shortly after college during a night of water-skiing and beer-drinking. The two quickly became close friends and in the mid-1990s, Clinton named him an adviser.
At the podium yesterday, Clinton said Segal's problem-solving ability, combined with his social awareness and compassion, should be an example to students at the school today.
To launch the Welfare to Work program in the 1990s, Segal managed a feat by enlisting the support of 20,000 companies, Clinton said.
"I hope people will remember the great gift he had, because the world is awash in opportunities and challenges," Clinton said.
Though Clinton didn't openly stump for his wife, he took some shots at the state of the country under President Bush. He said median family income adjusted for inflation is less than it was in 2001, despite the rising cost of household essentials.
He also said that more than half the personal bankruptcies declared in the United States are caused by family healthcare emergencies.
And he noted that while the nation has struggled to create jobs, countries like Spain have created 4 million and reduced greenhouse gases.
Referring to what he will do if his wife is elected president, Clinton said, "I'll do whatever I'm told."
Megan Woolhouse can be reached at mwoolhouse@globe.com 