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> 1999
> May/June
What Drives Elizabeth Dole?
She's had some big jobs, but she sees her life as a mission.
by Jennifer Ferranti
 1 of 5
On January 4, 1999, Elizabeth Dole resigned from her position as head of the world's largest humanitarian relief agency, immediately signaling her sights were focused on something even more challenging in Washington.
"The Red Cross is now as solid as rock and I believe there may be another way for me to serve our country," she told a room full of tearful employees and volunteers as she stepped down. "The Red Cross has been a glorious mission field."
She became president of the American Red Cross in 1991. The organization's first female president since founder Clara Barton, Dole oversaw a budget of $2.1 billion, 32,000 employees, and 1.4 million volunteers. Hired amid a scandal over possible HIV-contamination of the blood supply, she promptly revamped the agency's blood bank procedures. She also solved its budget crisis, raising $3.6 billion for the agency along the way. And stressing the importance of volunteerism, she passed up the first year of her $200,000 salary.
After only months at the helm, as she was flying home from Kuwait, Dole realized, "I had found a job that filled me with a sense of mission like I had never known."
"I've stood by your side in Florida as we braced for Hurricane Andrew," she reminded her Red Cross employees in her resignation speech. "I've cradled a gaunt Rwandan baby in my arms. And I've sat with our men and women in uniform, far from home and loved ones, as they keep the peace in Bosnia.
"I have seen things that will haunt me the rest of my life," she said. "But in this position, I've been able to make a difference for people with dire human needs. This has been more than a job to me."
Putting first things first
Mary Elizabeth Hanford was born July 29, 1936, in the idyllic town of Salisbury, North Carolina, the only daughter of a wealthy flower wholesaler. She describes growing up in a beautiful and loving Southern home in which "the Gospel was as much a part of our lives as fried chicken and azaleas in the spring."
At 98, Elizabeth Dole's mother still enjoys telling stories about her daughter's childhood.
One of her favorites occurred when Elizabeth was about 10 years old. For a time, Elizabeth's father owned a drugstore at which he opened a charge account for his daughter. You can purchase anything you like, he explained to her, but once you reach your monthly credit limit, you can't make any additional purchases that month.
One evening, as her father was recording the store receipts, he noticed that while Elizabeth never went over her credit limit, she purchased an extraordinary amount of comic books. He confronted her about it.
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