CHAPTER V 



NDRC OF OSRD: THE CHAIRMAN'S OFFICE 

 AND THE ENGINEERING AND TRANSI- 

 TION OFFICE 



The Chairman's Office 



I 



.N ADDITION to presiding over its sessions, the Chairman of 

 NDRC was the chief executive in charge of its operations. The role of the 

 Chairman's Office was in an almost continual state of flux as a result both 

 of the tremendous expansion of program and of the changing character of 

 the program and of the organization itself. 



In spite of the heavy demands on his time in connection with other war 

 activities — the Rubber Survey Committee and the atomic bomb project 

 among others — Conant made great personal contributions to NDRC, 

 particularly in connection with policy matters, with anticipating needed 

 changes in organization and steering the Committee through them, and 

 with the selection of a stafif effectively headed by Dean E. L. Moreland 

 to handle the heavy burden of regular operations. 



Initially there was no Chairman's Office organization as such. The civilian 

 members of the Committee as Chiefs of the NDRC divisions assumed re- 

 sponsibility for the administration of the programs within their respective 

 fields, except as the contractual and business arrangements were handled 

 by the Executive Secretary. With the acceleration of program following the 

 entry of the United States into the war there was need for greater co-ordi- 

 nation of scientific and technical matters, especially in those fields which 

 had not yet developed as the clear responsibility of one of the divisions or 

 where there might be overlapping interests. Accordingly, additions were 

 made to the staff of the Chairman's Office from time to time as need arose 

 and suitable men could be found. Arranged in order of their appointment 

 the following persons were members of the staff at one time or another: * 



* In addition, the following persons were appointed as Consultants or Special Assist- 

 ants to the Chairman for the purpose of assisting in the preparation of the Summary 

 Technical Reports and the "long history" of OSRD (see Chapter XX) during 1945 and 

 1946; but they did not participate in the general operations of the Chairman's Office: 

 Consultants: K. H. Condit, J. Rinehart; Special Assistants: L. H. Adams, J. C. Boyce, 

 C. W. Bray, L. H. Farinholt, W. A. Noyes, Jr., H. Rowe. 



