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Rare Books
Has modern technology had grown out of all proportion to man's need? We need a fresh view of life that recognizes the dignity of work and brings new work to people -- work that is not dependent on power-hungry, capital-hungry machines and factories. This volume questions many tenets held by first world economic experts, particularly their faith in massive industrial development that was energy- and capital-intensive, and often scarred the environment. The author's aim is to reintroduce the consideration of the human factor into the production process and to promote an appropriate technology for a variety of manufacturing situations.
492290
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Manuscripts
Personal and professional papers of Frank Wheat, with particular emphasis on his political activism and philanthropy. The papers cover his effort for the California Desert Protection Act (CDPA); the work on his California Desert Miracle, The Fight for Desert Parks and Wilderness (1999), and other environmental issues, particularly including mining's effect on the environment; the Alliance for Children's Rights, the Center for Law in the Public Interest and Human Rights Watch and his involvement with Ralph M. Parsons Foundation. The collection also contains information on Wheat's legal career, including his presidency of the Los Angeles County Bar Association, his tenure as an SEC Commissioner, his expertise in securities and corporate law, and his involvement with the California Citizens Budget Commission and California Commission on Campaign Financing. The dream of comprehensive legislation to protect California's desert and its resources was kept alive during the 1980s and 1990s by a congregation of volunteers and their representatives. After twenty years of effort, climaxing with a filibuster in the United States Senate broken by a single vote, a bill that had seen many manifestations was finally enacted in October of 1994, the California Desert Protection Act (CDPA). That is the story of California Desert Miracle, The Fight for Desert Parks and Wilderness, the book Frank Wheat wrote about fostering the act into law. As a result of CDPA's enactment, approximately 7.7 million acres of Federal lands were designated wilderness and roughly three million acres were added to the National Park system, including lands adjacent to the Death Valley and Joshua Tree National Monuments (designated as National Parks), plus the establishment of Mojave National Preserve. This amounted to roughly one-quarter of the state of California and made Death Valley National Park the largest such park in the lower 48 states. Beyond the parameters of the California Desert Protection Act, Wheat investigated many environmental issues. Foremost among these would be mining, which can be found in several areas of the collection. Mining's effect on the environment, particularly the desert – the irreversible damage from open pit mines - is reflected in documents on the cyanide heap leaching process for mining gold. Other documents discuss the Bureau of Land Management's position on reclamation measures versus the obligation to foster mining as part of its "multiple use" policy. Of an even greater concern was reform of the U.S. Mining Laws of 1872 (43 CFR 3809). These regulations allow anyone to claim hard- rock minerals on public land, file a plan of operations, and remove valuable minerals without paying a cent to taxpayers; Wheat felt they needed to be substantially revised. In consideration of that reform, he investigated the Glamis Mine in Imperial County, California, for possible litigation purposes. So while Wheat focused his efforts on getting the CDPA enacted, he juggled other important causes. While the collection's main focus is represented in 25 boxes of documentation regarding the Desert Bill crusade, it also includes rich resources about a plethora of environmental organizations, such as the California Desert Protection League – an amalgam of various organizations including several Sierra Club chapters, the Wilderness Society, Desert Survivors, several Audubon chapters and the Izaak Walton League. The spectrum of public interest law not only covers the environment, but the social problems addressed by such organizations as the Alliance for Children's Rights, the Center for Law in the Public Interest and Human Rights Watch, all represented in the Wheat Papers, along with those funding this important work, like the Ralph M. Parsons Foundation. Frank Wheat's penchant for organizations extended to those reflecting his professional life. Foremost among them would be the Los Angeles County Bar Association, which he served as president and who honored him with its Shattuck Price Award in 1985. Due to his expertise in securities and corporate law, Wheat was associated with even more organizations that offered forums and professional engagements for Wheat as a speaker, and drafts of those speeches are found in abundance. Topics include accounting standards and practices, disclosure, regulations, hostile take-overs, accountant-client privilege statutes, tender offers and Arthur Young & Co. Wheat's experience as an SEC commissioner was a considerable attraction for many organizations seeking insight into government regulations and procedures. It also afforded Wheat an insider's perspective on the way our government works, undoubtedly useful when he became involved with the California Citizens Budget Commission and California Commission on Campaign Financing. These volunteer, blue-ribbon groups of business, legal, education and labor leaders produced comprehensive studies on the state's most critical problems, offering recommendations and solutions, some of which resulted in initiatives (Propositions 68 and 208). Wheat's papers about these efforts and the many manifestations of the Desert Bill lend considerable weight to the federal and state legislative portions of the collection. In addition to his work on these commissions, Wheat's activism prompted him to write scores of letters to his representatives and to pivotal players in the government. Some were form letters used in specific campaigns and others more personal in their approach. In Wheat's push for the California Desert Protection Act, frequent correspondents were Senator Alan Cranston (D-CA), Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Congressman Mel Levine (D-CA), Senator and later Governor Pete Wilson (R-CA), Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt, Assistant Secretary of the Interior John Garamendi, BLM Director Ed Hastey, Senator Dale L. Bumpers (D-AR), Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Congressman Jerry Lewis (R-CA). Environmental activists such as Deborah S. Reames, Elden Hughes, Jim Dodson, Judy Anderson, Norbert Riedy, Jr., political reformers such as Tracy Westen and Robert M. Stern, and other prominent individuals such as former Secretary of State Warren Christopher and writer Neil Morgan appear repeatedly in these files. Correspondence is certainly the predominant format of the collection (letters, memos, e- mails), along with versions of his many speeches (handwritten and typescript), transcripts of testimonies from Wheat and others before various governmental committees, promotional materials and press releases from many organizations, manuscripts and notes, reports, publications (books, pamphlets, periodicals, legislative bills, CEQA [California Environmental Quality Act] reports), articles and excerpts from magazines, newspapers and newsletters, a few photographs and many maps, particularly of the California desert and surrounding areas.
mssWheat papers
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Manuscripts
Series 1: Subseries 1 primarily consists of personal material related to Albert D. Wheelon, however, there are some professional items related to his career. For instance, the appointment books contain professional and personal entries. The correspondence comprises much of Series 1 and spans from 1928 through 2012. The letters and e-mails are mostly personal, but due to Wheelon's scientific background and career path, there are many conversations with professionals in the public and private sector. After his career at Hughes Aircraft Company, he continued to conduct research and distributed his writings to colleagues, which is evident in the correspondence and Series 5 material. There are also numerous diaries and printed ephemera related to his travels all over the world with his first wife, Nancy Helen Hermanson and later, his second wife, Cicely Jean Evans. These entries are mostly typewritten, so they may or may have not been recorded during his trips. Also, included is material related his early education at Pacific Palisades School, Ralph Waldo Emerson Junior High School, and University High School. Loose invitations, photographs, and printed ephemera from Wheelon's time in the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) are in this series; the pages that remain intact from the scrapbook are found in Series 7: Audiovisual and oversize. Series 1: Subseries 2 consists of material related to Wheelon's education at Stanford University, where he earned his B.S. in Engineering in 1949. This subseries primarily includes correspondence from Wheelon updating friends and family about school and social life. In one letter, he expresses his priorities to his parents: "Helen is from Salem, Oregon...She seems to like me quite a lot...She is worth hanging onto, I guess, but right now I have too much studying to do to worry about women" Box 20 (4). There is later material related to Stanford University, which includes reunions and classes taken in the late 1980s. Series 1: Subseries 3 consists of material related to Wheelon's education at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he earned his Ph.D. in Physics in 1952. This subseries also primarily consists of correspondence from Wheelon updating friends and family about school and social life. In one letter, he offers advice to his younger brother, Peter. Wheelon recommends: "You must plan to study (And I mean work hard reading books) at least two hours every night. If you can get straight A's for the first two semesters, you will find that you can get along with very little work for the rest of your stay – sliding along mostly on your good reputation" Box 25 (6). Also included are assignments, photographs, and school records. Series 2 includes material related to Wheelon's career at TRW Space Technology Laboratories (STL), a division of TRW Inc. from 1953 through 1962. There is only one box related to his career at STL, where he was a Senior Member working on the United States Air Force (USAF) Ballistic Missile and Space Program. A few items of interest may be the printed material, which includes five Sentinel newsletters, a directory of technical personnel at TRW, and material related to the Geneva Conference on Preventing Surprise Attack in 1958. The second subseries includes lectures, outlines, notes, and reprints related to Wheelon's time as visiting professor of engineering at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). At UCLA, he taught radio wave propagation and propagation of electromagnetic waves. There may be overlapping material in Series 5, where additional notes, reprints, and writings related to scattering integrals and scintillation are found. Series 3 consists of material related to Wheelon's career at the CIA. Due to the sensitive nature of his work at the CIA, little was accumulated. However, one memorandum from Marshall Sylvester Carter reveals a positive impression of Wheelon at the agency: "I have been singularly impressed over the past months at the calm, unruffled, quietly analytical, and remarkably astute manner in which Bud Wheelon approaches all problem...He is one of our finest assets, and I am fearful he may be a dwindling one because of certain factors of utilization and community presence beyond his control" Box 47 (3). Included are photographs of a trip with the agency to Taiwan in 1965. Series 4: Subseries 1 consists of material related to Wheelon's career at Hughes Aircraft Company from 1966 through 1988. There is correspondence related to several contracts with several countries under his leadership in the Space and Communications Group, which includes Indonesia, Mexico, and Egypt. There are also numerous Hughes News newsletters spanning from 1966 through 1992. One notebook of interest is a log related to the startup of the Hughes Space and Communications Group, where he asks questions and weighs the financial impact of the new division. This subseries also includes booklets, clippings, photographs, and printed ephemera related to various satellites supplied. Series 4: Subseries 2 consists of material related to the corporate internal investigations and governmental investigations launched against Hughes Aircraft Company. As Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, Wheelon opened an internal investigation into possible bribes on an air defense contract in Egypt in 1988. In addition to the internal probe, the United States Department of Justice started to investigate the possibility of bribes involving Wheelon in South America. In response to these inquiries, Wheelon filed a complaint against Hughes Aircraft company for breach of contract and fiduciary duty related to Hughes Long-Term Incentive Plan (LTIP) and deferred compensation. (The Department of Justice dropped the investigation into Wheelon after a five-year long investigation.) Thus, this subseries contains numerous legal correspondence, documents, exhibits, hearings, legal documents, and memorandums related to these matters. The appointment books and logs in this subseries were used to compile a profile on the extent of Wheelon's involvement at HAC. Wheelon also kept detailed notes and chronologies, which are found in this subseries. Series 5: Subseries 1 contains material related to awards given Wheelon and other individuals. Wheelon was the recipient of the United States Distinguished Intelligence Medal, the Baker Medal for Excellence in National Security Affairs, and the R.V. Jones Intelligence Award. The contents found in this subseries includes letters of congratulations, speeches, photographs, and printed ephemera. There is also material related to Richard L. Garwin, William J. Perry, and Sidney Drell, who were all recipients of the R.V. Jones Intelligence Award. Series 5: Subseries 2 consists of Wheelon's extracurricular activities. He participated in various discussion groups regarding topics such as foreign relations, civil space activities, and the Cuban Missile Crisis. Wheelon was also a trustee at the California Institute of Technology, Rand Corporation, and Aerospace Corporation. This subseries also includes his contribution to several committees including the U.S. Advisory Committee on the Redesign of the Space Station, U.S. President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, and U.S. Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident. Series 5: Subseries 3 consists of Wheelon's speeches and lectures. The lectures are from his time as visiting professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford University. Also included in this subseries are talks related to the history of spy satellites, a topic frequently discussed by Wheelon after his retirement. He kept a binder with various speeches from 1969 through 1987. Those items have been removed from the binder and the speeches are listed under "Miscellaneous." Some of the speeches removed may be found elsewhere in the collection. Also included are remarks at birthdays, events, and memorials. Note: The date supplied is for the year of the lecture or speech, not the supplementary material included. In some cases, the speech or lecture may not be present in the folders, only the supplementary material. Series 5: Subseries 4 consists of research and reference material from Wheelon's files. Most of the declassified documents are found in this subseries. Electronic versions may be found online in the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Electronic Reading Room and NRO Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Declassified Records website. This subseries primarily consists of material related to covert programs conducted by the CIA, National Reconnaissance Office, and Air Force. A letter of interest may be one written by Wheelon to former CIA director, Richard Helms, where he recollects early programs in strategic reconnaissance. In this letter, he summarizes the following programs: U2 [AQUATONE]; A11, A12, SR-71 [OXCART]; Corona; Emergence of the NRO; and HEXAGON, RYOLITE, GAMBIT, QUILL, and CRYSTAL, Box 98 (1). This subseries is organized by subject with overlapping subject matter. For example, material related to artificial satellites, may be found in the clippings folder, artificial satellites folders, and more specifically, the Corona reconnaissance satellite program. The fifth subseries consists of publications and writings by Wheelon. He commonly sent copies of his writings to friends and colleagues, and those replies are included. In addition to his technical publications, such as electromagnetic scintillation, Wheelon flexes his creative side with two fictional short stories. Series 6 is a small series with material related to Wheelon's father, Orville Albert Wheelon (June 12, 1906 – February 9, 1966), an aeronautical engineer. An item of interest is Wheelon's trip log from Maryland to California in 1933. The brief entries include location, mileage, and the cost of goods. At one point during a lonesome drive, he describes leaving "...immediately to cross the desert during the night for it was very hot. It was surely was lonely on that straight stretch of pavement. Even a telephone pole would have been great company" Box 105 (4). Series 7 is the last series and primarily consists of VHS tapes and oversize material. Note: As required by law, 1.5 linear feet of security-classified materials have been removed from the collection until they can be declassified by government officials. Please see Processing Information and Access for more information.
mssWheelon