THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, April 11, 1995 TAG: 9504110002
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A12 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Short : 40 lines
The buck always stops somewhere, and a Northern Virginia jury decided that hundreds of thousands of bucks donated to charity, and the responsibility for diverting them to his own personal use, stopped with William Aramony. Forced to resign in disgrace after 22 years as head of the United Way of America, Mr. Aramony recently was found guilty of misusing contributions to the nation's most-contributed-to charity. He faces heavy fines, jail or both.
Both would befit a man whose arrogance and lack of ethics not only ruined his own reputation. They also jeopardized the standing and income of what has become a national charitable institution thanks mostly to the yeoman work of the local chapters that comprise it. Mr. Aramony's job was to help local chapters with training and marketing, and he did so very well. One can do well while doing good; with compensation of more than $390,000 a year, Mr. Aramony did that, too.
One can also sail down the Nile with a 17-year-old and not raise a peep from the press, unless he goes to such excesses that he's got to be stretching his finances somehow. In response to such press speculation, the UWA conducted its own investigation of Mr. Aramony. Then came the FBI, the IRS, the indictments and now the verdicts.
The United Way says it has recouped from the damage Mr. Aramony's betrayal did to donations. It has instituted an ethics code and stricter controls on finances. Better late than never.
That's a sad but true lesson to other organizations that depend on their honorable reputation: Don't presume that people who do good always do right. Here's another: Members of boards of organizations that depend on integrity need to check the spread-sheets as often as the society pages. by CNB