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Summary

Abstract:
Miles served fifteen years as a top level administrator at the Federal Security Agency and the Department of Health Education and Welfare.
Extent:
8 cubic ft.
Language:
English .
Preferred citation:

Preferred citation for this material is as follows:

Identification of specific item, series, box, folder, Rufus Edward Miles, Jr. Papers, 1934-1985. M.E. Grenander Department of Special Collections and Archives, University Libraries, University at Albany, State University of New York (hereafter referred to as the Miles Papers).

Background

Scope and Content:

Rufus E. Miles, Jr. papers contain published and unpublished essays and articles, personnel papers, proposed draft legislation, memoranda, public testimony, lectures, addresses and speeches, reports, opinion pieces in journals and newspapers, correspondence, photos and awards primarily related to his fifteen years as a top level administrator at the Federal Security Agency and the Department of Health Education and Welfare (1950-1965).

The same types of papers, also including course related materials, conferences, and award programs, are contained in his papers while serving as a faculty member at Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs (1965-1976) and then as a Senior Fellow at that same institution (1976-1982). This period holds papers related to his service on President Johnson's Task Force on Government Organization (1964-1967), President Nixon's Transition Task Force (1968) and Nixon's Advisory Council on Management (1970-1973). These years include significant materials related to President Jimmy Carter's welfare reform program and Miles' role in making the analytical argument for a new cabinet level Department of Education. This period also includes his writings and lectures on the issues of population and energy as related to social and environmental consequences as well as the broader issue of world peace cumulating in his book Awakening from the American Dream (1976) but continuing, through the early 1980s, after his retirement from Princeton in 1982.

Miles papers also encompass other materials related to his work on advisory councils and committees including the National Academy of Public Administration (1971-1988). In addition the papers hold items concerning Miles' deputy at HEW, James F. Kelly, documents by former Secretary of HEW Marion Folsom, correspondence with Congresswoman Millicent Fenwick and with Shirley Hufstedler, first Secretary of the Department of Education (1980). Personal notes from all the HEW Secretaries under whom he served are included as well as one from Under Secretary Nelson A. Rockefeller.

A small portion of the Miles collection includes materials related to his career before 1950: a program of "Self-Help Cooperatives" in Ohio (1935), The Ohio Relief Production Units (1934-1935), The Navy Department, Bureau of Ships, Finance Division (1942-1945), The Civilian Conservation Corp. in Ohio and Washington DC (1935-1941) and the Bureau of the Budget (1941-1942, 1945-1950).

The collection also holds a series of personal reminiscences written for his children and grandchildren which Miles entitled True Tales From Tin Lizzy Times and Other Essays (unpublished; 1983, 138 p.).

Biographical / Historical:

Rufus Edward Miles Jr. was born in Cincinnati, Ohio on June 14, 1910 and grew up in that same state in Columbus "in the shadow of Ohio State University". His father was a New Englander who attended Amherst and Harvard and was one of the first individuals engaged in the new profession of "public administration". Rufus' mother, Mable Arnold Rufus, was a graduate of Radcliffe, a professional social worker and eventually president of the Columbus Chapter of the League of Women Voters. Both parents were Unitarians and descendants of ancestors who came over on the Mayflower in 1620 [Some of his biographical details are contained in Miles' manuscript "True Tales From Tin Lizzy Time and Other Sketches", unpublished manuscript, 1983 especially in his "prefatory note" p. 1-5. A sketch of the essential details of his career are contained in Who's Who in America, 43rd. ed., vol. II. Chicago: Marquis, 1984].

Rufus Miles attended Antioch College where in 1932 he won a nationwide essay contest on the subject of "How Can American Colleges Promote World Peace". His essay, later published in the American Scholar, was an outline of a college course concerning war with particular emphasis on the role of irrationality [His essay was reprinted in a book of essays for college use: "A Student Requests a Course on War" in Essays of Three Decades. New York: Harper, 1939]. His leanings toward pacifism was modified by the advent of Hitler's aggressions. He remained however a lifelong advocate for the disarmament of conventional and nuclear weapons [Miles, "An Innocent Half-Student in Pre-Hitler Germany" in "True Tales..." p. 24-25]. He also maintained a belief in government intervention as a benign force for bringing about social change [Perhaps best expressed in Miles' history of HEW, The Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (New York: Praeger, 1974), 299-300].

Miles graduated from Antioch in 1932 in the midst of the Great Depression. He subsequently embarked on a lifetime career as a public administrator, bureaucrat and writer on public issues. His first position was that of budget officer for the Ohio Relief Production Units (1934-1935) which he describes as "a modest and unsuccessful experiment in state socialism" [Rufus E. Miles, "Index of Papers and Accompanying Explanatory Notes of Rufus E. Miles, Jr"., unpublished manuscript, 1988(?) p. 1]. His first federal position was that of Ohio Superintendent of Selection for the Civilian Conservation Corp. (1935-1936). This was followed by a distinguished career in Washington D.C. in a series of federal positions: Administrative Assistant to the Director of the Civilian Conservation Corp for Selection (1936-1941), The Navy Department, Bureau of Ships, Finance Division (1942-1945), various posts at the Bureau of the Budget (1941-1942) and (1945-1950), Assistant Administrator of the Federal Security Agency (1950-1955). The remainder of Miles' career was spent at the Department of Health Education and Welfare where he regarded himself as the "male midwife" for that newly formed bureaucracy [as Rufus E. Miles describes himself in "Index of Papers..." p.]. There he held the positions of Director of Administration (1953-1955) and (1956-1961), Comptroller (1955), Administrative Assistant Secretary (1961-1964) Assistant Secretary for Administration (1964-1965). The title of "Assistant Secretary" was specifically designed for Miles as a top official who would be expected to continue from one administration to another. During this period he served under Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson and under six Cabinet Secretaries: Hobby, Folsom, Flemming, Ribicoff, Celebrezze and Gardner.

Upon his retirement from public service he was appointed a lecturer in public affairs and Director of the Mid-Career Program at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University (1966-1975) and then as a Senior Fellow at that same School (1975-1982).

Among Rufus Miles' publications are Now They are Men (Washington DC: National Home Library Foundation, 1940), a ghostwritten paperback about the Civilian Conservation Corps; [The author of record is James J. McEntee, the Director of the Civilian Conservation Corp.] The Department of Health Education and Welfare (Praeger, 1974), a history of that agency; A Cabinet Department of Education (American Council on Education, 1976). In the latter he took the lead in making the analytical arguments for a cabinet level Department separate from HEW, a position which became a reality, under Jimmy Carter, in 1979. In 1976 he authored Awakening From the American Dream: The Social and Political Consequences of Growth (Universe, 1976). In this work he argued that future high-level economic growth was not sustainable and envisioned a future less affluent but a caring society based on a new value of doing with less. This influential book, published during a period of general pessimism about the future economy [The economy was in recession between 1973 and 1975], was a runner-up for the National Book Award in 1977. It may well have been an influence on President Carter's controversial "malaise" speech at the mid-term of his administration. Throughout his lengthy and distinguished career, Miles also wrote newspaper and journal articles dealing with the subjects of population control, energy consumption, world peace and public administration. Many of the latter articles appeared in Public Administration Review.

Rufus E. Miles Jr. married Nelle Mary Petrouski in 1938. They had two children: Barbara Miles and Mary (Mrs. Joseph Patten). Mrs. Miles died in 1988. Rufus Miles died in Ithaca, New York on April 9, 1996 at age 85. He is survived by his children and his second wife, Elizabeth Klaer Miles.

Acquisition information:
All items in this manuscript group were donated to the University Libraries, M.E. Grenander Department of Special Collections and Archives, by Rufus E. Miles from July 1989 to September 1997.
Processing information:

Preliminary finding aid compiled by William F. Young, Jr. in 1998.

Arrangement:

Collection is divieded into 6 series by topic.

Physical location:
The materials are located onsite in the department.

Contents


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RESTRICTIONS:

Access to this record group is unrestricted.

TERMS OF ACCESS:

The researcher assumes full responsibility for conforming with the laws of copyright. Whenever possible, the M.E. Grenander Department of Special Collections and Archives will provide information about copyright owners and other restrictions, but the legal determination ultimately rests with the researcher. Requests for permission to publish material from this collection should be discussed with the Head of Special Collections and Archives.

PREFERRED CITATION:

Preferred citation for this material is as follows:

Identification of specific item, series, box, folder, Rufus Edward Miles, Jr. Papers, 1934-1985. M.E. Grenander Department of Special Collections and Archives, University Libraries, University at Albany, State University of New York (hereafter referred to as the Miles Papers).

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