Parks Rusk Collection of Dean Rusk Papers, 1891-1985

Summary

Creator:
Rusk, Parks
Date:
1891-1985
Extent:
18 box(es) (8.5 linear feet)
Language:
English
Preferred citation:

Parks Rusk Collection of Dean Rusk Papers, Richard B. Russell Library for Political Research and Studies, University of Georgia Libraries, Athens, Georgia, 30602-1641.

Background

Scope and content:

The Parks Rusk Collection consists of research materials gathered over the years by Parks Rusk on the subject of his brother, Dean Rusk. Included in the collection is a substantial series of correspondence written by Dean Rusk. Many of these letters were written to his parents and to his sister while he was overseas in the 1930s and early 1940s during a period of schooling and military service. The collection also includes family correspondence and papers (from 1893); family photographs; files of speeches, programs, and printed materials (largely dating from 1947-1983); and a very extensive archive of newspaper and periodical clippings relating to the Secretary of State (mostly 1960-1985, with a few gaps.)

Biographical / historical:

Dean Rusk was born on February 9, 1909 in Cherokee County, Georgia. He attended Lee Street Elementary and Boys' High School in Atlanta, Georgia. Rusk obtained an A.B. degree from Davidson College, North Carolina in 1931, and a B.S. (Rhodes Scholar) and M.A. in 1933 and 1934 from St. John's, Oxford, England. He returned to the United States to become Associate Professor of Government and Dean of Faculty at Mills College, Oakland, California, from 1934 to 1940 and studied law at the University of California, Berkeley, class of 1940.

Rusk served in the United States Army from 1940 to 1946 in the China-Burma-India theater. At first he served with the Third Infantry Division, then later with the Military Intelligence Service. Rusk was released from duty with the rank of colonel.

After his military career ended, Rusk joined the Department of State from 1947 to 1952, as Assistant Secretary of State for United Nations Affairs and for Far Eastern Affairs. From 1952 to 1960 he was president of the Rockefeller Foundation. In 1961, President John F. Kennedy appointed Rusk to the office of Secretary of State. He remained in this position until 1969, through the administrations of Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson.

Rusk was in office during the ill-fated Bay of Pigs invasion, when East Germany began constructing the Berlin Wall, and as the world teetered on the brink of nuclear war during the Cuban Missile Crisis. He was also Secretary of State during the height of the Vietnam Conflict.

In 1970, Rusk came to the University of Georgia's School of Law as the Samuel H. Sibley Professor of International Law, and he later established the Dean Rusk Center for International and Comparative Law. Rusk served the University of Georgia until his death on December 20, 1994.

Rusk married Virginia Foisle in June, 1937. They had three children together, David Patrick, Richard Geary and Margaret Elizabeth. In 1990, As I Saw It , the book he co-authored with his son, Richard, was published.

Processing information:

Photographs have been separated for preservation.

Arrangement:

The collection is organized into five series: I. Correspondence, II. Rusk Family Papers, III. Speeches, Programs, Printed Materials, IV. News Clippings, and V. Photographs. The arrangement of the papers is topical, chronological thereunder, earliest date first.

Access and use restrictions

Terms of access:

Library acts as "fair use" reproduction agent.

Before material from collections at the Richard B. Russell Library may be quoted in print, or otherwise reproduced, in whole or in part, in any publication, permission must be obtained from (1) the owner of the physical property, and (2) the holder of the copyright. It is the particular responsibility of the researcher to obtain both sets of permission. Persons wishing to quote from materials in the Russell Library collection should consult the Director. Reproduction of any item must contain a complete citation to the original.

Preferred citation:

Parks Rusk Collection of Dean Rusk Papers, Richard B. Russell Library for Political Research and Studies, University of Georgia Libraries, Athens, Georgia, 30602-1641.