Famed organizer sees history in the making

In 1991, 28 years after he left, Ganz was back in Cambridge, where he earned a master's degree and, in 2000, a doctorate and then marked another transition: from student to teacher.

The challenge

Ganz stands at the front of a Harvard lecture hall, a diet Dr Pepper on the table in front of him. About 80 students fill the room, some from the Kennedy School, others from the Divinity School.

"Today we get into leadership," Ganz says. It is a skill most needed during times of uncertainty, he says, and best done by forming teams.

"Do not try to organize your project alone," he says, a titter moving through the crowd. "Get other people to help you. . . . It's not so much about exercising your own leadership as it is developing the leadership capacity of others. That's where the power comes from."

For the next 80 minutes, Ganz lectures a bit but also poses questions. He doesn't nudge the students toward any specific engagement, but it's clear that several have the political bug.

For a class project, Norena Limon, 25, of Chino was planning to skip a few days of classes to help Obama's grass-roots efforts out of state.

Limon represents the long-term challenge for the Obama campaign -- and for Ganz: how to harness and nurture the enthusiasm of the young and the idealistic, whose energy could dissipate if Obama fails to win the White House.

Ganz has faith that the seeds have taken root. If Obama loses, many of the disenchanted will disengage. But others will stay involved as community activists. They will organize others.

Forty years after history slipped through Ganz's fingers, he feels optimistic again.

"I just love the fact that hundreds of organizers are going to be unleashed on the country," he said, sitting with his coffee mug at the kitchen table amid all those stories.

It's Marshall Ganz's army, and it's marching your way.

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scott.martelle@latimes.com