Add another name to the string of big names announcing their pre-transition retirement: Edward Francis Meagher.
Meagher, currently deputy CIO at the Interior Department, let people know this morning, although he has been actively talking about the prospect in recent months. He sent out this short e-mail to some people this morning:
I have decided to retire from the government effective July 1, 2008.
I will be joining SRA International in their Health Care Unit in mid-July.
Back in December 2004, FCW referred to Meagher as a "true public servant." And, in 2005, Meagher not only won a Fed 100 award, but he was presented with the prestigious FCW Eagle Award, which is given each year to the best of the best — the first among the 100. Meagher was recognized for his amazing work with vets — work that has gone on for years and continues to this day.
Soon after the start of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, Meagher and a contingent of his Vietnam vet friends started taking a group of wounded soldiers to dinner on Friday nights. Back in 2006, we referred to the dinners as "Friday night magic" because they help these brave warfighters begin to re-enter society.
On Friday nights for the past two and a half years — in a back corner of a restaurant in the basement of the Capital Hilton a few blocks from the White House — magic has been happening. Each week, injured warfighters have come to Fran O’Brien’s Stadium Steakhouse to get a free steak dinner. The meetings were private affairs. A burly-looking bouncer stood at the door to protect these men and women so they could enjoy their meals.
The idea of serving the free steak dinners started out small with the invitation of a single soldier. But those Friday nights have become major events — occasions to embrace the men and women who have made great sacrifices in service to their country. Many of the people who started the Friday night event are veterans themselves — many of them Vietnam War veterans. They remember how they were treated when they returned home from that war, and they have worked to ensure that others will not be treated the same way.
Ed Meagher, deputy chief information officer at the Interior Department, is a member of the team of special wizards who have sponsored magical events at that magical place. I attended the Friday night event April 28. It was an amazing experience and inspired hope. At these dinners, you see severely injured male and female warfighters — some in wheelchairs, some with prosthetic limbs, some midway through their difficult recovery, said Meagher, who won the Federal 100 Eagle award last year for his work with the injured veterans.
Meagher joined Interior back in February 2006 as deputy CIO. Before that, he had been deputy CIO at the Veterans Affairs Department, where he had also served as acting assistant secretary for information and technology, acting CIO, and special assistant to the secretary on matters related to information technology.
Meagher is an Air Force veteran who served in Vietnam; he was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., and attended the University of Dayton in Ohio.
Meagher is one of the very honorable people in this community — a person who raises the bar and makes all of us better.
