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Ann Arbor, Michigan businessman, president of the Washtenaw Conservatives, active in local Republican Party affairs; correspondence and other papers relating to politics, the Board of Education, the Housing Commission and Police Department of Ann Arbor, and the Willow Run project of the federal anti-poverty program.

The George Lemble collection consists of a series of correspondence, clippings, newsletters and other publications dating from 1958 to 1968, and relating to his political activities in Ann Arbor and Washtenaw County. Another series of miscellaneous other papers relates to the debate over establishment of Ann Arbor Housing Commission in 1965, to his 1966 campaign for election to the Ann Arbor City Council, and to local conservative politics in general.

Republican Governor of Michigan, 1962-1969; Presidential candidate, 1968; Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, 1969-1972. Papers consist of extensive correspondence and subject files from his tenure as governor, campaign material, and files relating to service at HUD and his other political activities, includes photographs, films and videotapes and sound recordings.

The papers of George Romney document the many faceted career of an automobile executive, governor of Michigan, candidate for President, cabinet officer, and activist on behalf of volunteerism. In this electronic version of the finding aid to the Romney papers, there are six subgroups of materials. These are Gubernatorial Papers covering the period of 1962 to 1969, Pre-gubernatorial Papers covering the period before taking office in 1963, Post-gubernatorial Papers covering the period after 1968, records of Romney Associates (a group established during his bid for the presidency), Visual Materials covering mainly the period up to 1969, and Sound Recordings also covering up to 1969. There is some overlapping of dates, particularly around the time when Romney was first elected governor in 1962 and the period when he joined the Nixon administration in 1969. The researcher should also note that the papers of Lenore Romney are not part of this finding aid.

Governor of Michigan 1949 to 1960, under-secretary of state for African Affairs from 1961 to 1965, and Michigan Supreme Court justice from 1970 to 1986 and leader in state and national Democratic Party. Papers document his public career and aspects of his personal and family life and include correspondence, subject files, staff files, speeches, press releases and news clippings, photographs, sound recordings, films and videotapes.

The G. Mennen Williams Papers consist of official and personal files arranged into six subgroups: 1) Gubernatorial papers, 1949-1960 (681 linear ft.); 2) Non-gubernatorial papers, 1883-1948 and 1958-1988 (107 linear ft.); 3) Visual materials, ca. 1911-1988 (ca. 25 linear ft.); 4) sound recordings, 1950-ca. 1988 (5 linear ft.) Scrapbooks, 1948-1987 (43 vols.) and State Department Microfilm, 1961-1966 (23 reels).

As part of its own control system, the governor's office maintained a card index to the correspondents in many of the subgroups and series within the gubernatorial papers. This card file is located in the library's reading room. In addition, Nancy Williams and her staff compiled an extensive and detailed run of scrapbooks covering the Williams years. There is a separate inventory to these scrapbooks in a separately bound volume.

Strategy for Use of the Gubernatorial Papers: Although the Williams gubernatorial collection consists of hundreds of linear feet of material, the file arrangement created by the governor's staff is a fairly simple one to understand and to use.

The bulk of the collection falls within specific functional groupings, corresponding to the various activities and responsibilities that Williams performed as governor. Thus, if the researcher is uncertain of what portions of the collection might be relevant to his/her research, he/she is advised to think in terms of gubernatorial function. Does the proposed research concern the workings or area responsibility of a state board? If so, the Boards and Commissions series would be the most likely place in which to find material. The election of 1954? Then Democratic Party/Campaign Papers should be first choice. The passage of a specific piece of legislation? Here, Legislative Files is an obvious choice. The possible choices (called subgroups and series) that the researcher has are listed in the Organization of the Collection section. A description of the contents of each of these subgroups/series is provided below.

If, at first, unsuccessful in finding material on any given topic, the researcher might consider these additional strategies:

1. Refer to the Williams card index (located in the library's reading room). Sometimes, the name of an individual associated with a subject provides the easiest point of access into the collection. This file is arranged alphabetically and lists the dates of letters between an individual and the governor's office. This file only indexes the larger series and subgroups in the collection. It does not index the staff files, or parts of the Democratic Party/Campaign subgroup. Nevertheless it is an invaluable tool, and can uncover important material otherwise buried.

2. Refer to the various series of staff papers. Staff members were often closely involved in a specific subject areas (Jordan Popkin and aging, for example) and thus their files are frequently rich in source material.

3. If only partially successful in locating desired material, the researcher should think of an alternative subgroup or series. The governor's office, for a variety of reasons, often filed related material in different locations depending upon the source of a document. Thus, information relating to a strike might be filed both under the Labor Mediation Board in Boards and Commissions, and Strikes in General Subjects. Furthermore, if the strike influenced a specific piece of legislation, there could be material in the Legislative Files.

Office files and papers of state chairpersons William F. McLaughlin, Arthur Elliott and Elly Peterson, executive director Jerry Roe, public relations director Hugh Humphrey, and Joseph Hunting, executive director of the Republican State Finance Committee. The principal series in this record group include: Annual reports/Executive Committee meetings; Chairperson's files; Staff/Departments; Topical Files; Campaign Files; Convention Files; Miscellaneous; Sound Recordings; and Photographs.

The records of the Michigan Republican State Central Committee (hereafter SCC) consist of files generated over a twenty-year period by the three chairpersons, William F. McLaughlin, Arthur Elliott and Elly Peterson, who served in this period and by different staff members and departments within the party organization including executive director Jerry Roe, public relations director Hugh Humphrey, and Joseph Hunting, executive director of the Republican State Finance Committee. Although an attempt was made to maintain and otherwise arrange the files into series according to the name of the individual or department within the party that created the record, this was not always possible with the papers of the SCC. Thus some of the larger series within the collection, notably Topical Files and Campaign Files, have been drawn from different sources when that source of origin was not apparent or the files contained materials from two or more individuals

Public opinion research pollster, aide to Michigan governor George Romney. Polling materials prepared for various Republican campaigns, notably the gubernatorial campaigns of George Romney in 1962 and 1966, Romney's campaign for president, 1967-1968, and the gubernatorial campaign of William Milliken, 1970; and polls conducted on state issues including detailed demographic information on the views of ethnic, religious, and racial minorities; also survey done for Senator Robert Griffin in 1971, and on attitude of state voters towards abortion in 1972. A small collection of material donated in 2013 is related to George Romney's son and the 2012 Republican presidential candidate, Mitt Romney.

The papers of Walter De Vries reflect primarily his work for Romney and Milliken from 1962 until 1970. The papers are divided into two series, De Vries office files and polling data.