The Big Board

Politics Not As Usual

Steve Wakefield likes watching movies with his wife, Pam, during dinner. It helps take his mind off the fact that he can’t talk while eating very slowly, something he’s struggled with since being diagnosed with primary lateral sclerosis (PLS) six years ago.

Like ALS, PLS is a degenerative disease of the motor neurons. But it differs from ALS in several ways. First, it progresses more gradually, usually over 20 years. And although it causes progressive weakness in muscles and slurred speech, PLS isn’t fatal (see Insider's View).

Before he got sick, Wakefield, 63, had little time for movies. As the first general counsel of Southern Company, America’s largest producer of electricity, he’s handled energy projects, business strategy and dispute resolution. He still does, though at a slower pace, now as vice president and senior counsel.

Steve Wakefield rides Lincoln every week to relieve stiffness
and improve posture. Wife Pam is always nearby.

Wakefield’s high-profile career includes presidential appointments in the Nixon and senior Bush administrations. He became assistant secretary of the interior for energy in 1973 and returned to Washington as general counsel of the Department of Energy in 1989. And when he wasn’t working, he was skiing, hiking and running marathons.

But one day in 1995, while out on a run, he lost his balance and stubbed his toe. The next year became a blur of doctors and surgeries. Eventually he traveled from Atlanta to the Packard Center.

Devastated by Jeff Rothstein’s diagnosis, Wakefield quickly immersed himself in PLS investigations, learning that hope lay in stem cell research. When George W. Bush was weighing the decision to prohibit funding for stem cell research, Wakefield—who campaigned for both Bushes—wrote the president a letter.

“I’m told it had a big impact on his thinking,” Wakefield says. Now Wakefield serves on Packard’s board of governors. He convinced the Center to join the Coalition for the Advancement of Medical Research, the top advocate for stem cell research. Progress has been slow, but Wakefield hopes his efforts will hasten a cure for PLS and ALS.

Meanwhile, he draws inspiration from family, friends and even his favorite film, “Pride of the Yankees: The Lou Gehrig Story.”