Crowe enlisted
to boost Pacific
region awareness

By Suzanne Tswei
Star-Bulletin

Retired Adm. William J. Crowe Jr. will play a key role in shaping a Pacific studies project at Georgetown University to help educate Washington leaders about the region.

Crowe -- former commander in chief of the Pacific Command in Hawaii and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 1985-89 -- has agreed to serve as chairman of an advisory panel to develop the Pacific Project at Georgetown.

The panel, whose other members have not been named, will raise funds and develop the project's charter. U.S. Sen. Dan Inouye also has agreed to help raise money for the project, said Fred Radewagen, project manager.

The Pacific Basin Development Council, a Honolulu-based organization whose aim is to create economic development in the Pacific, also will help raise money and formulate programs for the project, said council Executive Director Jerry Norris.

The project still is more of an idea than a reality, but Crowe's involvement will help speed up efforts to get it off the ground, Radewagen said.

"Because of his fame in the Pacific and his associations with the leaders in the region over the years, it will certainly give credibility to the effort," he said.

The project has $40,000 and needs another $10,00 to be officially accepted as part of Georgetown University, Radewagen said.

The plan is to begin a lecture series this year and will eventually include scholarships and fellowships, he said. A lectureship will be named after the late American Samoa Gov. Peter Tali Coleman, a Georgetown alumnus.

The idea for a Pacific studies project began with Gov. Carl Gutierrez of Guam, who wanted to get more visibility for his territory and inform the Washington elite about the Pacific region, Radewagen said.

"A project of this kind is perfect in a place like Georgetown, the premier educational institution in our nation's capital," he said. "It produces so many people who go into government service, and they are bound one day to help make policy concerning the Pacific."

The project will round out the university's programs on the Pacific Rim area, he said. The university already offers studies on Asia, Australia and New Zealand.