Finan, William F. Papers

Assistant Director, Bureau of the Budget, 1950-1959

The papers of William F. Finan consist of articles, correspondence, maps, memoranda, newspaper clippings, printed material, reports, schedules, speeches, and an appointment calendar, mostly relating to his career with the Bureau of the Budget.

[Administrative Information | Biographical Sketch | Collection Description | Series Descriptions | Folder Title List]

---

ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION

Size: 10 linear inches (about 1600 pages).
Access: Open.
Copyright: The donor gave the copyright in the unpublished writings of William F. Finan in these papers, and in other collections of his papers deposited in any U.S. government archives, to the United States of America.
Processed by: Dennis E. Bilger (1980).
Updated by: Emily Sellers (2008) as part of the Truman Library Internship Program.
Supervising Archivists: Randy Sowell and David Clark.

[ Top of the page | Administrative Information | Biographical Sketch | Collection Description | Series Descriptions | Folder Title List ]

---

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

1914		Born, Memphis, Tennessee.
1936-1941		Personnel Director for Arkansas, Rhode Island, North Carolina, and Georgia.
1942		Administrative Analyst, Bureau of the Budget.
1943-1945		Officer, Military Intelligence Section, U.S. Army; attended Yalta and Potsdam Conferences as member of General George C. Marshall’s staff.
1945-1946		Intelligence Officer, State Department.
1946-1950		Administrative Analyst, Bureau of the Budget.
1950-1959		Assistant Director, Bureau of the Budget.
1959-1961		Assistant General Manager for Regulation and Safety, Atomic Energy Commission.
1963-1974		Official with Logistics Management Institute, a nonprofit corporation working primarily for the Defense Department.
1974		Died, Washington, D.C. area.

[ Top of the page | Administrative Information | Biographical Sketch | Collection Description | Series Descriptions | Folder Title List ]

---

COLLECTION DESCRIPTION

The papers of William F. Finan consist of articles, correspondence, maps, memoranda, newspaper clippings, printed material, reports, schedules, speeches, and an appointment calendar. The Finan papers cover the years 1938 to 1971, but date primarily from 1946 to 1959, when Finan served in the Bureau of the Budget. Much of the collection reflects concern for personnel and staffing problems in the Bureau of the Budget and advice to other agencies on fiscal matters. The collection is comprised of two series, a Chronological File and a General File.

Finan was commissioned into the U.S. Army in 1943 as an officer in the Military Intelligence Section and served until 1945. The papers contain information on the Tripartite (Potsdam) Conference in Germany in July 1945, where Finan served on the staff of General George C. Marshall. Also included are printed materials published by the U.S. Army for soldiers on leave in London, Paris, and Berlin.

Finan returned to the Bureau of the Budget in 1946 as an Administrative Analyst. Included in his papers are details of Finan’s duties, his loyalty clearance, and a report to the Governor of Puerto Rico on the maintenance of a modern democracy.

As Assistant Director in the Bureau of the Budget after 1950, Finan dealt with personnel and departmental organization. In 1958, Finan testified at a Senate subcommittee on President Eisenhower’s planned merger of the civil defense and defense mobilization functions. In 1959, Finan delivered a report on the organizational and administrative problems of NASA. His testimony and report are included in the collection.

Many of Finan’s papers deal with his service on President Johnson’s Task Force on Cost Reduction. A copy of the report of this task force is included in the collection.

From 1965 to 1971, Finan delivered a number of speeches as Vice President and later President of the Logistics Management Institute. These speeches are included in the collection, along with a report entitled “Briefing of the Secretary of Defense’s Blue Ribbon Panel on Department of Defense Organization and Management,” dated November 1969.

Other collections at the Truman Library pertaining to the Bureau of the Budget include the papers of Harry S. Truman (Official File 79 and White House Records Office Files), Frederick J. Lawton, David E. Bell, and Harold D. Smith.

[ Top of the page | Administrative Information | Biographical Sketch | Collection Description | Series Descriptions | Folder Title List ]

---