John W. Barnum began his career in public service as the General Counsel for the U.S. Department of Transportation in July of 1971. During his tenure he provided legal advice and counsel to the Secretary of Transportation on a multitude of initiatives within the Department. Barnum’s time as the General Counsel culminated in his nomination as Undersecretary of Transportation, a position he assumed in July of 1973, and a subsequent appointment as Deputy Secretary of Transportation in 1974, a position he held until the end of the Ford administration in January 1977.
The John T. Calkins Files consist primarily of correspondence prepared by him during his one year tenure as executive assistant to presidential counsellor Robert T. Hartmann. The files document his numerous contacts with local, state, and national Republican Party officials and members of the general public. The files are arranged as subject and general correspondence series.
James M. Cannon, a former journalist and aide to New York Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller, joined the Ford administration in January 1975 as an assistant to Vice President Rockefeller. Soon thereafter, President Ford assigned the Vice President a major role in the formulation of domestic policy. On February 13, 1975, President Ford announced that Rockefeller would serve as vice chairman of the Domestic Council and oversee the day-to-day work of the Council staff.
The papers of James M.
John Carlson served in the White House Press Office during the last two years of the Nixon administration and then was carried over by the Ford administration as assistant press secretary for domestic affairs. In this post his major responsibilities were preparing Press Secretary Ron Nessen for his daily press briefings and answering press queries on domestic matters. Additional responsibilities included attending domestic policy meetings held by the president when the press secretary was unable to do so; serving as press office liaison with all domestic departments, agencies, the
Dr. James H.
Connor was one of several young assistants brought into the Ford White House by Assistant to the President for White House Operations Donald Rumsfeld. Originally detailed from the Atomic Energy Commission, Connor's first assignment was to review the presidential scheduling and advance operations. When Connor became Cabinet Secretary in January 1975, he continued to supervise the Scheduling and Advance Office and oversee the planning of President Ford's long-range schedule.
Jeffrey P. Eves and his successor John B.
James H. Falk joined the Domestic Council staff in March 1971 as a staff assistant to Edward Morgan, Deputy Assistant to the President for Domestic Affairs. Falk was promoted to Associate Director in 1973 and assumed responsibility for activities associated with intergovernmental affairs, reporting directly to the director of the Domestic Council. He remained in this position until leaving the White House staff in December 1975 to accept a job with Touche Ross & Co., an accounting firm in Washington, D.C.
The Jay T. French Files concern his work in the Counsel's Office, primarily his role as White House liaison with the Presidential Clemency Board. Described below under separate headings are French's role in the White House, the scope and content of his files, and related materials in other Ford Library collections.
Jonathan D. Hoornstra joined the news summary staff in February 1972. The President’s daily news summary was an objective compilation of television and national wire services’ news reports covering foreign and domestic events. In the Nixon White House, the news summary was under the direction of the communications office. Mr. Hoornstra’s primary responsibility was to review 35-40 daily newspapers from across the United States for the purpose of selecting columns and editorials for the President to read and preparation for the President’s daily news summary.
Judith Richards Hope, a graduate of Wellesley College and Harvard Law School, was associated with law firms in Washington, DC and California. She also spent one year as deputy director of the California Rural Development Corporation before joining the Domestic Council.
Stephen Wayne and James F. C. Hyde interviewed members of President Ford's White House and OMB staff as part of a 5-year joint research study of legislative clearance, enrolled bill and legislative programming processes over different Administrations (see Appendix A). Several scholarly articles resulted from the study, and the interviews are also widely cited in Professor Wayne's book, The Legislative Presidency.
Judith Ann Johnston, a former legal secretary, joined the Domestic Council staff as a secretary in February 1973. She first worked in the office of the Executive Director, Kenneth Cole, but from October 1974 on she was staff secretary for the Domestic Council under the Deputy Director for Operations.
Jerry Jones began his White House career during the Nixon administration and remained on staff for the entire Ford presidency. He held several positions in the White House Personnel Office from 1971-74, and in April 1974 was appointed Staff Secretary. He continued as Staff Secretary in the Ford administration until June 1975 when he was appointed Director of the Scheduling and Advance Office. The Jones Files are from his tenures in the last two positions.
RELATED MATERIALS (July 2015)Records related to James Lynn service during the Nixon administration are located at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library. Materials related to housing include the David O. Meeker Papers (Assistant Secretary for Community Planning and Development, HUD), Tod R. Hullin Files, F. Lynn May Files, and White House Central Files Subject File category HS (Housing) and FG 23 (Department of Housing and Urban Development).
John O. "Jack" Marsh served in Congress with Gerald Ford from 1963 to 1971. Although a Democrat, his conservative political philosophy led President Richard Nixon to appoint him Assistant Secretary of Defense for Legislative Affairs in 1972. He later joined Vice President Ford's staff as an advisor on defense and foreign affairs matters. When Gerald Ford became President in August 1974, he appointed Marsh as a Counsellor to the President.
J. Stanley Pottinger held two important Federal offices involved with civil rights enforcement during the Nixon and Ford administrations: Director of the Office of Civil Rights for the Department of Health Education and Welfare and the Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice.
John E. Reinhardt was a career diplomat who joined the United States Information Agency (USIA) in 1957 as a Foreign Service Officer, one of the first African-Americans to join the diplomatic service during that era.
John W. "Bill" Roberts's background was in radio and television news reporting. He was a newscaster for radio and television stations in Iowa and then Washington bureau chief for stations owned by Time, Inc.
The Shiskin papers consist of copies of his professional articles and books; a clipping file on his career and those of his associates; and miscellaneous papers and books accumulated during his government service, but especially from 1969 to 1978. While most of the materials are on the public record in scattered locations, their convenient compilations here makes the collection a valuable resource.
The James B.
John Stiles, a longtime friend of President Ford from Grand Rapids, served as Mr. Ford's campaign manager during the 1948 campaign for Congress and helped him during the Warren Commission's investigation of the Kennedy assassination.
Jerald terHorst was named Press Secretary to the President on August 9, 1974, the day Gerald R. Ford became the 38th President of the United States. He was Ford's first presidential appointment. TerHorst was a Michigan newspaperman who had covered Ford's political career since the 1948 Congressional race.
Related Materials (August 2012)The Grand Rapids Oral Histories Collection contains an interview with 30-30 Club member Arthur G. Brown, in which he describes his friendship with Gerald Ford, the South High School football teams of the late 1920's and early 1930's and subsequent meetings of the 30-30 Club. Materials documenting the 30-30 Club reunion at the White House can be found in several collections, including the Russell Armentrout Files and Sheila Weidenfeld Files.
John C. Vickerman joined the White House staff in 1973. Early in the Ford administration he served as Executive Assistant to Counsellor Anne Armstrong and as Executive Secretary of the Federal Property Council. He was appointed to the Office of Public Liaison as Director for Business and Trade Associations on December 18, 1974. In this position he reported directly to William J. Baroody, Jr., Assistant to the President for Public Liaison.
The James M. Wilson papers mainly concern his career in the State Department, 1958‑77. The topics most completely documented are Micronesian status negotiations and State Department human rights and humanitarian affairs policies and activities.Wilson joined the State Department on detail from the Department of Defense in 1958 to work on the foreign aid program. He became a foreign service officer in 1961 and served overseas in Spain, Thailand, and the Philippines before returning to Washington in 1970 as a Deputy Secretary of State.
James M. Cannon, who worked for many years as a journalist and aide to Nelson Rockefeller, joined the Ford White House staff as Executive Director of the Domestic Council in February 1975 and served until the end of the Ford administration. Many years later he approached President Ford with a plan to write a book about the President’s life and career. That project resulted in the publication of Time and Chance: Gerald Ford’s Appointment with History (New York: HarperCollins, 1994), with a projected second volume.
Related Materials (January 2012)Several collections document the Ford Presidential Museum including: Gerald R. Ford Commemorative Committee: Records, 1977-84; Gerald R. Ford Museum Re-dedication Committee: Records, 1996-97; Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum Dedication Committee, Inc.: Financial Records, 1981-82. These collections are currently unprocessed and unavailable for research.
As a young activist in the Republican Party, Juliette C. “Judy” McLennan served in several campaign volunteer positions before becoming the director of the National Volunteer Desk of People for Ford (PFF) during the 1976 general election campaign. PFF was the volunteer unit of the President Ford Committee (PFC), President Ford’s 1976 election campaign committee. Developed in the wake of the party’s national convention, the National Volunteer Desk worked to connect volunteers with their state campaign headquarters.
John E. Robson has had a varied professional career in law practice, management, academia, and government service. He began his career in government in 1966 with the Office of Management and Budget. He has worked, as both unofficial and official advisor, for each administration since Lyndon Johnson's, mostly in economic and transportation matters.