Collection context
Summary
- Creator:
- Catalano, Richard M. and Ford Foundation
- Extent:
- 1.99 Cubic Feet and 4 LTR size and 1 LGL size Hollinger boxes
- Language:
- English .
Background
- Scope and Content:
Collection contains the staff subject files of Richard Catalano who held a number of different positions at the Ford Foundation. Between 1963 and 1969, Catalano served as an Assistant to the Secretary, a Program Officer in International Affairs, and a Program Officer in the Office of Public Broadcasting. All of the material in the collection pertains to Catalano's time as Program Officer in the Office of Public Broadcasting. These records comprise one series that documents the Foundation's support for educational television (ETV) in the 1960s and its submission to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in 1966 that proposed the creation of a satellite system to serve both noncommercial television (informational, cultural, and instructional) and commercial television.
Many of the files appear to hold materials maintained and organized by Catalano rather than materials that directly regard his own activities. The small amount of correspondence authored by or addressed to Catalano found within the collection is all dated 1967 or later. By containing records created through the work of other Ford Foundation officers like Howard Dressner, the collection documents a larger history of the Foundation's Satellite Project and ETV efforts.
In addition to correspondence, the collection holds papers, drafts, notes, memoranda, speech transcripts, brochures, and publications.
- Biographical / Historical:
Richard Catalano (1934-2007) held a number of different positions at the Ford Foundation. Between 1963 and 1969, Catalano served as an Assistant to the Secretary, a Program Officer in International Affairs, and a Program Officer in the Office of Public Broadcasting. After he left the Office of Public Broadcasting in 1969, he briefly continued in public television-related work with positions as Vice President for Administration at National Educational Television (NET) and Vice President for Media Services at the Educational Broadcasting Corporation.
Catalano was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. After he graduated from Bowdoin College in 1955, he served in the United States Army in Korea from between 1956 and 1958. He received a Master's Degree from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University in the year he left the army, and then, in 1963, he earned a J.D. from George Washington University.
Catalano's later career involved a variety of administrative positons at higher education institutions such as the School of Law at Pace University and the City University of New York.
- Acquisition information:
- This material was transferred to the RAC in 2019 by the Ford Foundation and was ingested by the RAC as Accession 2019:020.
- Arrangement:
Collection consists of one series. That series is comprised of subject files related to the Ford Foundation Office of Public Broadcasting's work in educational television and the Satellite Project. The subject files are ordered in an inconsistent alphabetical arrangement.
Original order was maintained as much possible.
The collection arrangement is as follows:
Series 1. Educational television (ETV)/Satellite Project subject files, 1962-1968
Access
- RESTRICTIONS:
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Open for research. Brittle or damaged items are available at the discretion of RAC.
When requesting to view audiovisual material, please refer to the Title and the AV Number (example: AV 1916). Researchers are asked to check the "Restrictions" note for each Title. If a Title does not currently have an access copy, please contact a RAC archivist for further instruction.
- TERMS OF ACCESS:
-
Ford Foundation has title, copyright and literary rights in the collection, in so far as it holds them.
The Rockefeller Archive Center has authority to grant permission to cite and publish material from the collection. Permission to publish extensive excerpts, or material in its entirety, will be referred to the Ford Foundation.
- LOCATION OF THIS COLLECTION:
- CONTACT:
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