Bert Lance | |
|---|---|
.jpg) | |
| 23rd Director of theOffice of Management and Budget | |
| In office January 24, 1977 – September 24, 1977 | |
| President | Jimmy Carter |
| Preceded by | James T. Lynn |
| Succeeded by | Jim McIntyre |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Thomas Bertram Lance (1931-06-03)June 3, 1931 Gainesville, Georgia, U.S. |
| Died | August 15, 2013(2013-08-15) (aged 82) Calhoun, Georgia, U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Education | Emory University University of Georgia(BA) |
Thomas Bertram "Bert"Lance (June 3, 1931 – August 15, 2013) was an American businessman who served as director of theOffice of Management and Budget under PresidentJimmy Carter in 1977. He is known mainly for resigning from theCarter administration because of a scandal during his first year in office. However, he was later cleared of all charges.[1]
Lance was born inGainesville, Georgia. His father, Thomas Jackson Lance, had served as president ofYoung Harris College, in northeastern Georgia, and in 1941, the family relocated toCalhoun when Lance's father became superintendent of Calhoun schools.
After graduating from Calhoun High School in 1948, Lance attendedEmory University for two years before he transferred to theUniversity of Georgia, where he was a member of theSigma Chi fraternity. In 1950, he married LaBelle David, whose family owned the Calhoun First National Bank; they had four sons. Under pressure to support his growing family, Lance dropped out of the University of Georgia before graduating.
He became a teller at Calhoun First National Bank and, within a decade, ascended to its presidency. He acquired a controlling stake of the bank with a consortium of investors in 1958. Meanwhile, he completedexecutive education programs at theLouisiana State University School of Banking of the South and the Stonier School of Banking atRutgers University-New Brunswick.[2][3] He served as president of theNational Bank of Georgia inAtlanta from 1975 to 1977 before serving in the Carter Administration.
Lance introduced himself toJimmy Carter at the 1966 annual meeting of the Coosa Valley Area Planning and Development Commission. He aided Carter in campaigning in the northwest part of Georgia for Governor that year.[4] Carter did not qualify for the general election, but after running again and winning in 1970, he invited Lance to becomeState Highway Director.[4] Lance ran to succeed Carter in 1974 but lost a bid for the Democratic nomination, finishing third in the first primary behindLester Maddox and the eventual winner,George Busbee. During the campaign, Lance accrued campaign debts of nearly $600,000.[5]
Lance was an adviser to Carter during his successful1976 presidential campaign. After Carter's victory over PresidentGerald Ford, Lance was named Director of theOffice of Management and the Budget (OMB). According to former OMB officials, it was well known in the department that Bert Lance and President Carter prayed together every morning.
Within six months, questions were raised by the press andCongress about mismanagement and corruption when Lance waschairman of the board of Calhoun First National Bank of Georgia.William Safire's article written during this time,Carter's Broken Lance, earned aPulitzer Prize in 1978.
It was an embarrassment for Carter's administration, particularly as it took place soon after President Nixon'sWatergate scandal and President Ford'spardon of Nixon just before he could be tried for any crimes. To ensure there was no hint of similar impropriety in the Carter administration, Lance resigned his position. Later, after a well-publicized trial in 1980, a jury acquitted Lance on nine charges, and did not decide two others.[6][7]
In 1981, Lance returned to the Calhoun First National Bank as chairman; he left in 1986. He then made something of a political comeback in 1982 when he was elected Chairman of theGeorgia Democratic Party. In 1984,Walter Mondale – who was the Democratic candidate for U.S. President at the time – sought to name Lance chairman of theDemocratic National Committee, but was forced to withdraw his name after opposition from Democratic party members.[8] Lance's appointment as general manager of the 1984 campaign lasted only a few weeks.[9]Lance was an advisor toJesse Jackson during Jackson's 1988 presidential campaign.[10]
Lance is credited with popularizing the phrase "if it ain't broke, don't fix it", which he was quoted as saying in the May 1977 issue of the magazineNation's Business.[11] The expression became widespread, andWilliam Safire wrote that it "has become a source of inspiration to anti-activists."[12]
Lance was implicated in theBank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) scandal of the 1980s and early 1990s. He was involved in deals with notable BCCI investorsAgha Hasan Abedi,Mochtar Riady, andGhaith Pharaon[13] and with BCCI's largest borrower, Ponnapula Sanjeeva Prasad,[14][15] and joined withArkansas-based power investorJackson Stephens in facilitating BCCI's takeover of Financial General Bankshares.[16] Lance and Stephens made millions in the wake of BCCI's collapse.[17] During Carter's run for office, Lance had helped him secure funding by using stored peanuts at Carter's peanut business. It was alleged that there were no peanuts in the storage facilities.
In January 1978, Lance sold his stock in National Bank of Georgia to Pharaon, and on the same day, BCCI founder Abedi paid off Lance's $3.5 million loan at the First National Bank of Chicago. Meanwhile, the Chicago bank was making huge loans to theSoviet Union with openlines of credit. The next month, Lance helped BCCI's hostile bid for Financial General Bankshares of Washington. The attempt failed, but three years later, BCCI secretly acquired the bank and renamed it First American Bankshares by using 15 Arab investors as nominees. The next year, Lance introduced Carter to Abedi. In 1987, First American Bankshares acquired National Bank of Georgia from Pharaon. BCCI was terminated in 1991, and it was subsequently revealed that the bank had engaged in many illegal activities, including secretly controlling several US banks, in violation of federal banking statutes.[18]
OnSaturday Night Live, September 24, 1977,[19] the day Lance resigned from the Carter administration,John Belushi (playing Lance) andDan Aykroyd (playing Carter) appeared in an advertising parody of anAmerican Express credit card commercial.[20]
In a Season 5 episode ofGood Times (1977),JJ references Bert Lance while offering to make out a check for the family budget, knowing they have no money.[21]
In "Making Out", a 1979 episode of the sitcomWhat's Happening!, Rerun (played byFred Berry) confuses Bert Lance withCyrus Vance while trying to impress a date who is a political science major.[22]
A stretch ofInterstate 75 in Georgia has been named for Lance.[23]
Lance died on August 15, 2013, at his home innorthwest Georgia at age 82. He had been inhospice care due to recent declining health, caused byaging.[24][25]
Lance was found innocent on nine charges of misusing the funds of two Georgia banks he headed... the jurors could not reach a decision on two counts charging Lance lied in financial statements and one count charging that a loan Lance made to co-defendant Carr through the National Bank of Georgia was a misapplication of bank funds.
Stephens was both a close friend of Lance's, and a longtime activist in Democratic political circles. Stephens had been instrumental in fundraising efforts for President Jimmy Carter, who had been his classmate at theUS Naval Academy in Annapolis. Moreover, Stephens retained a financial interest in National Bank of Georgia after Lance purchased it from FGB.
That never bothered Bert Lance!
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Director of theOffice of Management and Budget 1977 | Succeeded by |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
