Collection ID: FA566

Collection context

Summary

Creator:
Edwards, Robert H. (Robert Hazard) (1935-) and Ford Foundation
Abstract:
Robert H. (Hazard) Edwards joined the Ford Foundation as a program officer for the International Division in 1965. In 1968, Mr. Edwards served as the Foundation's Representative in Pakistan. He later transferred to the Middle East and Africa (MEA) Program in the early 1970s where he would serve as Deputy Head under William Fredericks. In 1973, he succeeded Fredericks as MEA Head. Mr. Edwards left the Foundation in 1977 to accept an appointment as President of Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota. The Office Files of Robert H. Edwards span from 1968 to 1977 and comprise the files that Mr. Edwards kept as Head of the International Division's MEA Program. The collection is organized into three series: program management files, subject files, and chronological files. The program management files primarily consist of memoranda but also correspondence, notes, reports, and papers relating to the work of Mr. Edwards's program officer Lowell S. Hardin. Mr. Edwards's subject files contain memoranda, correspondence, papers, speeches, reports, meeting materials, and background primarily pertaining to the Foundation's programs in the Middle East and Africa. His chronological files of correspondence and memoranda from the year 1968 and the years between 1972 and 1977 are also available.
Extent:
3.28 Cubic Feet and 8 LTR size and 1 Half-LGL size Hollinger boxes
Language:
English .

Background

Scope and Content:

The Office Files of Robert H. Edwards span from 1968 to 1977 and comprises the files that Mr. Edwards kept as Head of the International Division's Middle East and Africa Program. The collection is organized into three series: program management files, subject files, and chronological files.

The program management files primarily consist of memoranda but also correspondence, notes, reports and papers relating to the work of Mr. Edwards's program officer Lowell S. Hardin. As is reflected in the subjects covered in his files, Mr. Hardin's work primarily concerned agricultural research and rural development in the Middle East and Africa. His files include information on agricultural research centers, international efforts in aquaculture, the world food crisis, the difficulty in recruiting staff for Africa, the phasing out of advisory support for economic planning in Africa, and the possibility of Saudi support for agricultural research.

Mr. Edwards's subject files contain memoranda, correspondence, papers, speeches, reports, meeting materials and background primarily pertaining to the Foundation's programs in the Middle East and Africa. There are materials on the Foundation interest in and support for inter-faith dialogues in the Middle East, area studies and social science research in Africa, training for journalists in Africa, and international agricultural research and training centers. In addition, there are discussion and background papers as well as memoranda concerning the agenda and logistics for the Ford Foundation Seminar for OLAC/MEA Program Advisors in Agriculture held in Ibadan, Nigeria (1973). Some of the subject files pertain to the Foundation's work on legal development in Latin America and the International Legal Center (ILC) Research Advisory Committee on Law and Development. These files contain meeting materials for the ILC Research Advisory Committee and memoranda reporting on a series of in-house Foundation meetings on law and social change in Latin America (1972-1973).

A subject file on Foundation-grantee relations contains memoranda and discussion papers critiquing and reflecting on the how the Foundation interacts with grantees. Memoranda and papers address such issues as defining the limits of Foundation intervention in grantee organizations, the autonomy granted to grantees to execute projects, the responsibilities of program officers, and the status of Foundation employees hired through suballocations. These materials appear to be background for task force discussions addressing a lack of sensitivity toward grantees in Foundation policy formulation (1973).

The chronological files in the collection were expanded by the addition of a later segment of Robert H. Edwards office files (Accession 2019:019). They contain correspondence and memoranda.

Biographical / Historical:

Robert H. (Hazard) Edwards was born on May 26, 1935 in London, England and was raised in Middleton, Ohio. In 1957, he received a B.A. in English from Princeton University. He subsequently read law at Cambridge University and received an LL.B. from Harvard Law School in 1961.

After graduation, Mr. Edwards served under the Queen's Commissioner in the Bechuanaland Protectorate from 1961 to 1963, where he assisted in its transition to independence as the Republic of Botswana. From 1963 to 1965, he worked for the U.S. State Department's Bureau of United Nations Affairs on matters relating to the newly independent African countries before joining the Ford Foundation as a program officer for the International Division in 1965. In 1968, Mr. Edwards served as the Foundation's Representative in Pakistan. He later transferred to the Middle East and Africa (MEA) Program in the early 1970s where he would serve as Deputy Head under William Fredericks. In 1973, he succeeded Fredericks as MEA Head.

Mr. Edwards left the Foundation in 1977 to accept an appointment as President of Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota. In 1986, he left Carleton College to join the Secretariat of His Highness the Aga Khan as Head of the Department of Health, Education and Housing in Karachi, Pakistan. From 1987 to 1990, he also served on the Board of Trustees of Aga Khan University. He returned to the United States in 1990, serving as President of Bowdoin College until his retirement in 2001.

The Ford Foundation has been engaged in overseas work since the early 1950s. The Foundation's aspiration to become a national and international philanthropy for the advancement of human welfare was first formally expressed in the seminal 1949 report of the Gaither Study Committee, which was commissioned by the Board of Trustees to chart the future. In 1951, the Foundation established two of its first grant programs, Overseas Development (OD) and Overseas Training and Research (OTR). The granting goals were to increase agricultural production, improve health and living conditions, and advance education. South and Southeast Asia were the initial focus, with India and Pakistan receiving the majority of grants. A more limited number of grants were issued in Indonesia and Burma. A program for smaller regional and national grants also was initiated for the Near East. In 1957, Overseas Development further expanded to include programs in Latin America.

As part of a Foundation reorganization in 1966, the Overseas Development Program, along with other international programs such as International Training and Research (ITR) and Population, became part of a single International Division (ID). A subsequent restructuring of the International Division occurred in 1980-1981 and led to the creation of the Developing Countries Program (DCP). DCP was again restructured in 1989, resulting in the separating of programs in Africa and the Middle East (AME, formerly MEA), Asia (ASIA), Latin American and the Caribbean (LAC/OLAC), Human Rights and Governance (HRG), Education and Culture (EC), Program-Related Investments (PRI), and International Affairs (IA) as independent program areas.

Acquisition information:

Ford Foundation archive was deposited at the RAC in 2011. Ford Foundation records, correspondence, reports, program files, and officers' papers were transferred to, and accessioned by the RAC beginning in 2011.

A later set of Robert H. Edwards Staff Subject Files was transferred to the RAC in March 2019 and was ingested by the RAC as Accession 2019:019. This accession was incorporated into the collection during processing in April 2019.

Accessions continue as necessary.

Processing information:

This collection was created by merging files that had been misfiled and stored under incorrect departments or divisions. The April 1968 to October 1968 chronological files were originally filed among files belonging to the Higher Education and Research Division.

Box 4 contains legal-sized subject files. These files are part of Series 2. Subject Files and have been physically separated from the other (letter-sized) subject files and placed in a longer box in order to accommodate their size. Within the finding aid, they have been intellectually arranged to appear alphabetically by folder title along with the other subject files to facilitate access.

Another run of Robert H. Edwards' chronological files were transferred to the RAC in March 2019. They filled an evident gap in the holdings of the established Ford Foundation records, International Division, Office Files of Robert H. Edwards collection and were incorporated into Series 3. Chronological Files during processing in April 2019.

Arrangement:

Collection is arranged into 3 series.

The collection arrangement is as follows:

Series 1. Project Management Files, 1973-1976

Series 2. Subject Files, 1969-1977

Series 3. Chronological Files, 1968-1977

Access

RESTRICTIONS:

Open for research. Brittle or damaged items are available at the discretion of RAC.

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:
15 Dayton Avenue
Sleepy Hollow, NY 10591, United States
CONTACT: