SUMMARY DESCRIPTION
Materials on her work as Domestic Council Assistant Director on such topics as abortion, problems of the aging and the handicapped, child welfare, health care, and medical research. Massengale also handled historic preservation, fine arts, and other cultural issues.
QUANTITY
14.8 linear feet (ca. 29,600 pages)
DONOR
Gerald R. Ford (accession number 77-33)
ACCESS
Open. Some items are temporarily restricted under terms of the donor's deed of gift, a copy of which is available on request, or under National Archives and Records Administration general restrictions (36 CFR 1256).
COPYRIGHT
Gerald R. Ford donated to the United States of America his copyrights in all of his unpublished writings in National Archives collections. The copyrights to materials written by other individuals or organizations are presumed to remain with them. Works prepared by U.S. Government employees as part of their official duties are in the public domain.
Prepared by Paul Conway, October 1979
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INTRODUCTION
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.
SERIES DESCRIPTIONS
Health, Social Security and Welfare File, 1974-76.
(Boxes 1-26, 10.6 linear feet)
Reports, testimony, bills, statements and printed materials received by Massengale or her predecessor Needham from federal agencies or businesses; and some correspondence, memoranda and notes exchanged between Massengale and Domestic Council staff or the public. The file contains information on federal government involvement with health and welfare programs, particularly abortion policy, problems of the aging and the handicapped, medicare, Olympic sports and health legislation and includes papers dating from Needham's service during the Nixon administration.
Arranged alphabetically by subject and thereunder chronologically.
View container list for this series
Cultural Affairs File, 1975-76.
(Boxes 26-30, 1.8 linear feet)
Correspondence, memoranda, press releases, printed material and other papers principally exchanged between Kathleen Ryan and federal officials or cultural groups concerning personnel and budgetary matters or annual reporting procedures for the Commission of Fine Arts and the National Foundation for the Arts and the Humanities, but including information on historic preservation legislation and on cultural programs of other federal agencies. Massengale added similar materials after she succeeded Ryan in 1976
Arranged alphabetically by subject and thereunder chronologically.
View container list for this series
Domestic Council Reference File, 1974-76.
(Boxes 30-35, 2.0 linear feet)
Briefing papers, presidential statements, press releases, memoranda and other papers concerning Domestic Council administrative matters and Ford administration health and cultural activities, including background information on certain of President and Mrs. Ford's meetings, State of the Union addresses and HEW activities reports.
Arranged alphabetically by subject.
View container list for this series
Chronological File, 1975-77.
(Boxes 35-36, 0.8 linear feet)
Correspondence, memoranda, draft speeches and statements produced by Massengale in response to incoming public correspondence or at the request of Domestic Council staff members, concerning her responsibility for health and welfare issues and cultural matters. Included is material drafted by Massengale for transmittal to the President or other officials by Domestic Council director James Cannon.
Arranged by month and thereunder in reverse chronological order.
View container list for this series
Duplicate Publications, 1975.
(Box 37, 0.4 linear feet)
Removed from the health, social security and welfare file and similarly arranged. (Folder title list unavailable.)