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I gained the concept of Social Security being a job that involved helping people. It was a less tangible help than that provided by a police officer or firefighter, but apparently had somewhat the same importance for the health of the community. It was about protecting people from hard times. It was a kind of protection people deserved and that they had earned. I came to see that in this way Social Security was a noble calling, a cause to be pursued, beyond being a job.

Two years ago, Commissioner Astrue and Regional Commissioner Disman put on an event to honor my father in Newark, New Jersey where he began his career in 1939. Attending that event helped me understand the organizational climate during that early stage in the program and my father's response to it as an entry level Field Assistant. It was evident that Social Security was a calling for him from the very start. He believed President Roosevelt's vision that this controversial new program could provide a vital addition to the American way of life. He believed that an effective Social Security program could become a manifestation of government at its best. This perspective continued to inform his approach as he moved on to the Analysis Division, then the Training Office, and on through a series of leadership positions. Indeed, for the rest of his life he felt responsible for the well-being of Social Security as an institution.

By the time I was in high school I understood that this institution was important in the history of our country and that it needed to grow. Seeing my father play a role, usually behind the scenes, in the legislative dramas that continued to shape this part of history was very exciting. At some crucial moments, I was able to be in the audience for Ways and Means Committee hearings and to be in the Gallery for Senate deliberations. It was after I was away in college that my father was appointed Commissioner of Social Security by President Kennedy. From then on, he was at the center of even more dramatic steps in Social Security history including the enactment and implementation of Medicare. A comprehensive account of my father's career with an emphasis on policy making can be found in Ed Berkowitz' biography, Robert Ball and the Politics of Social Security (University of Wisconsin Press, 2003).

Family members sometimes teased my father that even though he was one of the leading experts on retirement he never figured out how to retire himself. When he resigned in the second Nixon Administration after being the longest serving Commissioner, he went on to a second Social Security career. His activities included creating The National Academy of Social Insurance to bring together experts who could enhance America's understanding and valuing of social insurance. He tirelessly worked to protect and advance the basic principles of Social Security. More often than not change in politics dictated that he assume the role of defender. He helped defeat major attempts to compromise the program in 1983, 1996, and 2005. Tom Bethell has written a lively account of this last conflict over privatization (See “Roosevelt Redux, Robert M. Ball and the Battle for Social Security”, The American Scholar, Spring 2005 and Summer 2005). His defending never stopped. My father's final piece of writing, which is the basis for the newly published memoir chapter, was his effort to stave off any potential damage that could arise from the creation of a future commission (such as the current National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform).

On the 70th anniversary of Social Security, I had the unusual experience of standing in for my father at Hyde Park. He was presented with the Franklin D. Roosevelt Distinguished Public Service Reward. I knew he had a number of heroes, but I felt confident in responding to the presentation by saying “No honor could be more gratifying to him or to our family than to have his career and his legacy associated with Franklin Roosevelt. It is the FDR approach to public service and social policy that my father strove to bring to his life's work - the persistent optimism, the mixture of idealism and pragmatism, the dynamic vision of a more just America. It is the FDR kind of impact on our nation's well-being that my father has sought to augment in his own areas of endeavor.”

Since my father's death in January 2008, I have had in my study the impressive bust of FDR he was awarded. It represents his life's work coming full circle. If my father were here to comment on these reflections for the 75th anniversary, he would probably say that I said too much about him – it is the future of the institution of Social Security that is important, not the actions of one person.