JERRY JONES FILES, 1974-77

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.

Jones' Role in the Ford White House
As Staff Secretary, Jones' job responsibilities fell into four categories: presidential papers, action requests, administration, and special projects. The first area involved the administration of the flow of decision memoranda, briefing materials, and other paperwork to and from the President. For paperwork going to the President, Jones made sure that all relevant inputs were included, and checked for correct format, thoroughness, and accuracy. He also transmitted requests or notes from the President to members of the staff. The second area of responsibility was follow-up on all action requests from the President and Chief of Staff, including receipt of written reports for all presidential requests. In fulfilling these obligations, Jones saw that proper staff work was done on all paperwork going to the President, helped the President structure use of his time, and assured an orderly decision-making process.

Jones' administrative responsibilities included administration and supervision of the White House budget, hiring secretarial and professional personnel, allocation of office space and perquisites, approval of travel requests and vouchers, supervision of White House support personnel through the Chief Executive Clerk, and oversight of all operations of the Military Aide's Office on matters other than presidential travel. He also served as liaison with the General Services Administration and the telephone company for all work in the White House complex, cleared all communications to the staff, directed expenditure of the funds provided by the Republican National Committee, and supervised the visitors office and the archives unit on the presidential papers project. Special projects varied over time, but included oversight of White House computer operations and planning for the White House swimming pool.

When Jones became Director of the Scheduling and Advance Office in June 1975, he assumed responsibility for long-range planning of the President's schedule. He coordinated the submission of schedule proposals to the President, and scheduling for trips, meetings, special events, speeches, and media encounters. This was an especially crucial role during the primary and general campaigns of the 1976 presidential election.

The Staff Secretary and Scheduling and Advance Offices were both supervised by the Assistant to the President for White House Operations. This chain of command is evident in the approximately 2,000 pages of memoranda exchanged between Jones and Alexander Haig, Donald Rumsfeld, and Richard Cheney, who held that position in succession.

Scope and Content of the Jones Files
The earliest materials predate the Ford administration by several months, but basically the collection begins with the transition. The files include materials from the Staff Secretary's Office under both Nixon and Ford, and the Scheduling and Advance Office. Because of the positions Jones held, the files give a good overview of the functioning of the White House Office and the processes for managing the many details relating to personnel, paperwork flow, follow-up on action requests, and scheduling. Much of the collection is understandably routine administrative material, but taken in toto it provides insight into life in the Ford White House.

The files are particularly valuable for the study of White House administration, the 1976 presidential campaign, presidential scheduling and trips, and media relations. When using the files, a researcher should be willing to look in several places, as one series may not yield the full range of material available on a given topic.

Memoranda exchanged among White House staff members, paperwork status reports, and a variety of logs are all good sources for the study of White House administration. A sense of the corporate culture of the White House can be gained from the many folders relating to perquisites and personnel.

Materials relating to the presidential election are especially voluminous and varied for the primaries, and include files about the campaign effort in several states, the Reagan challenge, and defining the Ford constituency. There are also several folders relating to logistics for the Republican National Convention, and liaison with the Republican National Committee and President Ford Committee. Significant portions of the Scheduling and Trips and Media Events series are campaign related.

Presidential scheduling and trips are documented by the many schedule proposals submitted to the President. These proposals list the pros and cons of each event and give evidence of the many factors to be considered by the White House staff and President when making decisions about presidential activities. The President indicated his decisions by initialing the proposals and sometimes wrote comments in the margins. In addition to routine itineraries and schedules, trip files may also include background information, briefing materials, and follow-up reports.

Materials on media relations include recommendations for interviews, and memoranda concerning the timing of media events, topics of interviews, and the President's image. Briefing papers and transcripts of interviews are also included in the files.

Related Materials (January 1991)
Related materials can be found in the files of Alexander Haig, Richard Cheney, and their colleagues in the White House Operations Office. The files of James Connor, Secretary to the Cabinet and Jones' successor as Staff Secretary, are also open for research. Selected series of the President Ford Committee records are open, and additional materials relating to the 1976 campaign are described in "The 1976 Presidential Election: A Guide to Manuscript Collections Available for Research." The Ron Nessen Papers and Files contain related materials in the area of media relations.