SARAH C. MASSENGALE FILES, 1974-77

Sarah C. Massengale, a former management analyst for a Washington, D.C. consultant firm, joined the Domestic Council in June 1975 as assistant director for health, social security and welfare, replacing Pamela Needham. After April 1976, when assistant director for consumer and cultural affairs Kathleen A. Ryan resigned, Massengale also coordinated cultural affairs, which comprised the arts, humanities and historic preservation. She reported to associate director Arthur Quern until January 1976 and thereafter to associate director Spencer Johnson. Massengale was assisted by Rosemary Rogers and remained with the Domestic Council until the end of the Ford administration.

While Quern or Johnson as associate director coordinated policy development with other Domestic Council staff and acted as liaison with federal agencies within the subject area, Massengale handled routine matters, compiled and summarized information and circulated material within the Domestic Council. She answered correspondence and referrals, commented on legislation, personnel appointments and speeches, and drafted issues statements for use by the President, his staff or the press.

Massengale was responsible for coordinating several important matters, particularly abortion policy, legislation on the aging, medical insurance reforms, and planning for the White House Conference on the Handicapped. She also arranged meetings between the President and health and cultural groups or met with similar groups herself to discuss substantive health and welfare issues.

In addition to materials accumulated by Massengale, these papers include files on cultural affairs inherited from Kathleen Ryan and files on health, social security and welfare retained by Massengale after Pamela Needham's departure, some of which date from Needham's service on the Domestic Council during the Nixon administration. Much of the file consists of printed reports, circulars and copies of widely distributed papers received by Massengale, although drafts and finished copies of correspondence, memoranda and other papers are included on some subjects. During processing certain materials on arthritis and hospitals, sent to White House Central Files oversize attachments by Massengale, were removed and placed in her health files.

Related Materials (October 1979)
Related information may be found in other Domestic Council collections, particularly in the chronological files of Pamela Needham and Kathleen Ryan. The files of Quern and his successor Johnson contain large files on subjects which Massengale handled, including social security financing, welfare reform, food stamps, swine flu immunization and physical fitness. Their subject files also include summaries of Domestic Council activity and information on problems in the area of health and welfare that they coordinated without Massengale's assistance.