DOROTHY DOWNTON FILES, (1972) 1974-77

Dorothy Downton joined the Ford congressional staff as a secretary in January 1967, becoming Mr. Ford's personal secretary in 1972, and remaining his personal secretary throughout the Ford Vice Presidency, the Presidency, and for three years after the Presidency in the Ford Office in California. During her tenure as secretary to the President, Downton worked in the Office of the President, reporting directly to the President. The Office of the President was responsible for handling the President's personal affairs.

Dorothy Downton managed many of the First Family's personal financial matters, including payments for First Family food consumption at the White House, Camp David, and the White House Mess, and personal expenses related to travel. Downton also paid First Family bills such as tuition and insurance premiums, but little evidence of this is found in the collection. During the 1976 Presidential campaign, Downton handled arrangements and payments for the First Family's campaign - related travel, and, like other members of the personal staff, made numerous "get out the vote" telephone contacts on Ford's behalf.

Downton's files include correspondence addressed to the President (often via Downton), incoming and outgoing correspondence she handled for the President, and referral memos to and from other White House staff members, most often Roland Elliott and members of the correspondence unit. The correspondence relates to many different topics and much of it is from personal friends and relatives of the President. There are also requests for autographs and photographs (usually referred to Anne Kamstra), letters of advice to the President, and requests for his assistance. A number of letters have notations or memos in Mr. Ford's handwriting as to how they should be handled, often providing useful insights on Ford's personal relationships. It is not always clear, however, why certain correspondence items were administered by Downton.

This collection also includes official materials filed by Downton for the President's use, including copies of memos and reports from Vice President Rockefeller, Ford's copy of the 1976 campaign strategy program and preliminary media plan, and long - time friend Jack Stiles's report on the operations, personnel, and effectiveness of the President Ford Committee. Consequently, the Downton collection is particularly valuable for studies of the 1976 Presidential campaign. Also of note are a series of office logs maintained in Ford's Grand Rapids office by Trix Turkenburg Carlson, July - October, 1974. The logs furnish a unique perspective on the Presidential transition.

Although evidence of Dorothy Downton's work is found in the Ford congressional and Vice Presidential papers, the Downton collection contains only a few scattered documents from that period. The notable exception is a series of reports from the 1972 Ford - Boggs congressional trip to the People's Republic of China (currently security classified and closed to research).

Related Materials (December 1990)
The White House Central File Subject File category, "President - Personal" (PP) relates to personal and quasi - personal First Family topics, especially the public's interest in such matters. The Files of Philip Buchen, counsel to the President, also include significant materials on the First Family. Additional information regarding the First Family is available in the Library's collection of printed materials, and material on Mrs. Ford is in many files.

Chronological files of correspondence generated by Dorothy Downton, Mildred Leonard, and Debra Shuffleton, 1966 - 1982, are among the unprocessed Ford Personal Papers. The files of personal staff members Mildred Leonard and Anne Kamstra are also unprocessed.

Collections containing material on the 1976 Presidential campaign are described in "The 1976 Presidential Election: A Guide to Manuscript Collections Available for Research" which is available upon request.