Statement by the 

 Secretary Emeritus 



Robert McC. Adams 



The following remarks were made at the installation of the 

 Smithsonian's tenth secretary on September 19, 1994, by out- 

 going Secretary Robert McCormick Adams: 



"Increase and diffusion of knowledge" is a credo for the 

 Smithsonian to which I, and many others, resonate very 

 warmly. It has the drawback, however, of providing neither 

 guidelines nor limits in a time of uncertainty as well as con- 

 straint. There is, of course, no formula that applies to every 

 setting. In the parlance of modern complexity theory, the task 

 of managing the Smithsonian involves uneasily threading 

 one's way along a knife-edge ridge berween two deep but dan- 

 gerously single-minded basins of attraction — change and op- 

 portunity on the one side, and stability and caution on the 

 other. 



My own conviction is that a decade is long enough to en- 

 gage in this balancing act. Although obviously also with feel- 

 ings of regret, I am confident of the timeliness of passing on 

 this responsibility. Overshadowing any other purely personal 

 reaction is a sense of satisfaction and pleasure at the choice the 

 Board of Regents has made for my successor. 



I have come to know Michael Heyman well during his 

 three years as a regent, and even better during recent months 

 as this remarkably smooth and cordial transition has been 

 under way. He is an acutely perceptive, supple, pragmatic, 

 broad-ranging generalist who believes in and understands this 

 Institution. (His breadth, I might add, is significantly ex- 

 tended by Therese Heyman s long professional experience in 

 the arts.) I think he can be counted on to provide wise leader- 

 ship during the lean times that lie ahead — committed to the 

 defense of the Smithsonian's core values and priorities while al- 

 ways open to the prospect of new initiatives. 



We are especially fortunate that he is deeply familiar with 

 the public-private partnership on which the Smithsonian has 

 been based since the very outset and on which it now must 

 rely increasingly. But at the same time, he is no less wise in 

 the ways of public organizations and bureaucracies. He knows 

 that they, too, can and must be infused anew with vision and 

 the spine of public service. They, too, can best be improved 

 and made more efficient through decentralization and a 

 greater reliance on incentives than on rules and restraints. 



