Benjamin Franklin Bailar was named the sixty-first Postmaster General of the United States by the Postal Service Board of Governors on February 16, 1975, succeeding Elmer T. Klassen. In 1970, the Postal Service was created as a semi-independent establishment of the executive branch under an eleven-member Board of Governors. The purpose of the reorganization was to bring a more business-oriented administration to the huge federal postal system. As both the Postmaster General, and previously as the Deputy Postmaster General, Bailar sat on this board.
Although not a member of Ford's congressional or White House staff, Benton L. Becker played an integral role in some of the most important events of Gerald Ford's career, including the investigation of Associate Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas, Ford's confirmation as Vice President, the Nixon pardon, and the disposition of Nixon's papers.
The White House Advance Office was tasked with visiting foreign and domestic sites a few weeks before scheduled Presidential trips in order to plan and coordinate logistical matters. These responsibilities encompassed creating the Air Force One manifest, designating hotel room and banquet seating assignments, diagramming site locations, organizing and vetting proposed schedules through protocol and security offices, checking visa and passport credentials, and ensuring the needs of the President, White House staff, and traveling press corps were fulfilled.
The Byron M. “Red” Cavaney Papers document the work of the White House Advance Office. As head of the White House Advance Office, Mr. Cavaney oversaw the planning for President Ford’s domestic and international trips. In this role he also selected volunteers to assist with the trips. The files typically predate the official Presidential visits by two or three weeks as staff assistants met with local or foreign officials to negotiate agendas, secure living arrangements and transportation, and diagram site locations for entry and exit routes.
Betty Ford hired friend Nancy Howe as her personal assistant not long after Gerald Ford was nominated as Vice President. Mrs. Howe was in charge of guide book sales at the White House Historical Association and had been helping Mrs. Ford for several weeks prior to being officially hired.
Bobbie Kilberg came to the Ford White House with a background as an attorney, college administrator, Republican activist, and board member of interest groups supporting the rights of Native Americans and women. She also had served in the Nixon administration as a White House Fellow and Domestic Council staff assistant.
Bradley Patterson served in a number of positions during the Nixon and Ford administrations. These papers are from his work on the White House staff as an assistant for Native American Programs from 1969 to 1974, and again from August 1976 to January 1977. Patterson first worked in this area as an assistant to Leonard Garment during the Nixon administration, and then after serving in other roles in the Ford White House, he was appointed Special Assistant for Native American Programs by President Ford in August 1976.
Bradley Patterson served throughout the Nixon and Ford administrations in a variety of positions, most notably as the White House official closely monitoring the concerns of Native Americans from 1969 to 1974 and again in 1976. The files described here consist of correspondence and memoranda generated or accumulated by Patterson in 1976 as Special Assistant to the President for Native American Programs, and Patterson's correspondence on Indian issues from 1974. Patterson served on the staff of the Presidential Personnel Office from 1974 to 1977 and his files from that work will be
When Barry Roth joined Gerald Ford’s vice presidential staff in January 1974, he was only twenty-four years old and had yet to complete his law degree. In spite of his youth, he had already worked as a legal assistant to the General Counsel of the General Services Administration (GSA.) William Casselman. When Casselman became General Counsel to Vice President Ford, he brought Roth along as his assistant. Casselman and Roth continued on the vice presidential staff until August 9, 1974 when Ford succeeded to the White House. They then became part of the staff of the Office
Bruce Wagner came to Campaign ’76 Media Communications at the behest of Chairman Peter H. Dailey in November of 1975. On extended leave from Grey Advertising, Inc., the eighth largest advertising agency in the United States, the 32 year-old Wagner was charged with overseeing the staff and daily operations of the agency, a corporation specifically established to handle President Ford’s advertising for the 1976 nomination and general election campaigns.
Birge S. Watkins, a 1971 graduate of Alma College, began working for L. William Seidman in 1972 in Grand Rapids, Michigan. In September 1974, he volunteered to aid Seidman with the Economic Summit and was then appointed to Seidman's office as staff assistant for scheduling.As staff assistant, Watkins drafted replies to requests for appointments, appearances and White House tours. He also drafted responses to uncomplicated letters regarding economics and routine matters. Many form letters were used.