Whatever Happened To... ?

They were a portfolio of 200 young leaders, 45 or under, with distinguished records of social or civic service. During the disheartening days of Watergate, TIME chose them as evidence that "America has men and women who can assume leadership roles in the right circumstances--and given the right spirit in the country."

Some on the 1974 list have done exceptionally well, many have assumed increasingly important posts, and the lives of a few have illustrated the perils that beset those who would fill leadership roles in present-day America. "We are still anticipating our unfulfilled promise," says Bill Moyers, a member of the Class of 200 who remains one of the most perceptive journalists on public television. Roughly half of those on the original list are playing much the same leadership roles as they did five years ago. A quarter seem to be exerting greater impact. The rest have lost standing or influence, sometimes voluntarily, sometimes not.

Politics has turned out to be a particularly risky profession. Among the original 200, there were 65 elected officials. Only 38 still hold office; 18 were turned away at the polls; the rest chose not to run again for various reasons. In some cases, the losers' defeats said more about the vagaries of American politics than about their own abilities. Harvey Sloane, for example, was mayor of Louisville when he was profiled in 1974. He effectively and intelligently guided his city through a busing crisis. But in his bid for Governor this year, Sloane was beaten by former Kentucky Fried Chicken King John Y. Brown, a man with no political experience who put $1 million of his own into the campaign, and stumped the state with his new wife, TV-famous Phyllis George.

Included in the 18 who lost subsequent bids for election was Dick Clark, the highly respected liberal Senator from Iowa who fell victim to a right-wing, right-to-life attack. Bill Baxley, crusading attorney general of Alabama, lost a race for Governor; Luther Hodges, successful bank chairman, lost a Senate primary in North Carolina to a man who outspent him 20 to 1; Yvonne Brathwaite Burke, California Congresswoman, lost a race for state attorney general; Andrew Pickens Miller, Virginia's attorney general, lost a race for Senator. Vermont Governor Thomas Salmon, who ably fought the land developers in his small state ("Vermont is not for sale"), lost a Senate race to Republican Robert Stafford and is now a lawyer in Bellows Falls (pop. 5,263) and a lobbyist in the state legislature. Wendell Anderson made the mistake of resigning his Minnesota governorship so that his successor could appoint him to a U.S. Senate seat. At the next election the voters disappointed him. Connecticut Senator Lowell Weicker tried but failed to exploit his Watergate committee prominence; in May he became the first dropout from the presidential race.

Others simply wearied of the Washington struggle. Congresswoman Barbara Jordan, who also attracted national attention because of her impressive performance during Watergate, is now on the lecture circuit. James Abourezk chose not to run for re-election as a South Dakota Senator and is a lawyer who represents, among other clients, the new government of Iran. Illinois Senator Adlai Stevenson III will retire next year; he talks vaguely of campaigning for the presidency as an independent, hoping to sweep away the "minutiae" that hog-tie Washington.

There were, however, many successful politicians in the group, the most obvious being Ted Kennedy, the Democrat leading in presidential polls. Georgia's Senator Sam Nunn has become a respected and conservative expert on military affairs. Seventeen won their first elections or gained higher offices. These Include a gaggle of Governors: Tennessee's Lamar Alexander, California's Jerry Brown, West Virginia's Jay Rockefeller, Illinois' James Thompson and Delaware's Pierre DuPont IV. There was also a spate of new Senators: New Jersey's Bill Bradley, Michigan's Don Riegle, Missouri's John Danforth, Pennsylvania's John Heinz III, Indiana's Richard Lugar and Maryland's Paul Sarbanes. Congressman Andrew Young was made U.N. ambassador by President Carter, who also named two others from the 200 to his original Cabinet: former Idaho Governor Cecil Andrus Interior Secretary and Joseph Califano HEW Secretary, a job he was fired from on July 19. Nancy Teeters moved up from her post as an economist for the Federal Reserve to a place on its governing board, and Barbara Newell has been nominated to be Under Secretary of HEW. Last week Carter tapped former Mayor Moon Landrieu of New Orleans to be HUD Secretary and Mayor Neil Goldschmidt of Portland, Ore., to be Transportation Secretary.

Doris Kearns, an aide to and biographer of Lyndon Johnson's, was a rising star both in Washington and on the Harvard faculty. But she has decided, at least temporarily, to concentrate on her family and a book she is writing about three generations of Kennedys.

The business leaders of 1974 have generally been successful. Raymond Hay switched from an executive vice presidency at Xerox to the presidency of LTV. Gerald Meyers rose from vice president to chairman and chief executive of American Motors. Economics Professor Marina Whitman will start next month as chief economist and vice president at General Motors. The biggest losers among the businessmen were Arthur Taylor, eased out of the presidency of CBS, and Richard Kattel, the boy wonder of Atlanta's go-go banking days, who resigned his chairmanship of Citizens and Southern National Bank. The Comptroller of the Currency had classified $11 million of the bank's loans as questionable.

Some celebrated names on the list have continued to flourish. Astronomer Carl Sagan's new book, Broca 's Brain, is a bestseller. Consumer Advocate Ralph Nader crusades on, focusing on nuclear power. Conservative Columnist George Will won a Pulitzer Prize for commentary. Feminist Gloria Steinem has remained a theoretician and spokeswoman for her movement, and is writing a book on its impact. Pete Dawkins, the onetime West Point football hero and a Rhodes scholar, marches ahead in perfect if rather deliberate cadence: he is now an Army colonel in the 101st Airborne Division.

Others of the 200 have gone right on showing the individual flair, flinty character or bold imagination that got them on TIME's list of leaders. H. Ross Perot, head of Electronic Data Systems and a man worth an estimated $230 million, organized a private commando raid that rescued two of his workers caught in the revolution in Iran. Tennis Star Billie Jean King, triumphing over knee operations, last month won a record-breaking 20th championship at Wimbledon. A thrilling and symbolic moment for the members of the Class of 200, who are only now beginning to enter middle age. Years of opportunity and leadership stretch ahead.

For a more detailed look at the contrasting five years of three of the 200, see the following stories.

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