Office of the Secretary

For Release: September 12, 1997

Contact: John Wright 202/208-6416

Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt today announced the appointment of seven private citizens as members of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial Committee, an ad hoc committee of the National Park System Advisory Board. The Committee is charged with reaching consensus as to where and how an addition to the memorial will recognize that FDR used a wheelchair while leading the Nation through some of its most difficult times.

The Committee will be chaired by Dr. Holly A. Robinson of Atlanta, Vice Chair and Historian for the National Park System Advisory Board, on which she has served since 1988. In that position she has taken a lead role in determining the eligibility of proposed National Historic Landmarks. She has also served as the Chair of the Civil War Sites Advisory Commission. Dr. Robinson currently serves as the Deputy State Superintendent of Schools for the Georgia Department of Education. Dr. Robinson has also served as an administrator and Professor of History at several institutions, including the Marist School of Atlanta, the University of San Francisco, Villanova University, and Georgian Court College of Lakewood, NJ. She is active in numerous education and preservation associations.

Members of the Committee:

Hugh Gallagher of Cabin John, MD is the author of four books, including FDR's Splendid Deception a book detailing how President Roosevelt veiled his disability. He has been published in The New York Times and Washington Post, was guest commentator on National Public Radio and was the 1995 winner of the Henry Betts Award. He is a noted disability rights activist.

Karl Komatsu of Texas is a historic architect and the president of Komatsu/Rangel, Inc. He is a board member of the National Trust for Historic Preservation and a former member of the National Park System Advisory Board.

Laurie D. Olin of Philadelphia is a landscape architect and a partner in the Olin Partnership, as well as an Adjunct Professor of Landscape Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania's Graduate School of Fine Arts.

Michael R. Deland of Washington, DC is an attorney and Vice Chairman of American Flywheel Systems, Inc (AFS). He is also the Chairman of the Board of the National Organization on Disability

and a Director of the World Committee on Disability. Prior to joining AFS, Mr. Deland served as Chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality and as New England Regional Administrator for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

David Dillon of Amherst, Massachusetts is an author of three books on architecture and urban planning, architecture critic for the Dallas Morning News, and a Loeb Fellow at Harvard University.

James Roosevelt, Jr of Boston is a public policy leader and the grandson of President Franklin D. and Eleanor Roosevelt. As an attorney, he has distinguished himself in the medical and health care field andis a frequent lecturer to professional and industry organizations. He serves as president of the Roosevelt Warm Springs Foundation.

On July 24, 1997, President Clinton signed a law (P.L. 10529) directing the Secretary of the Interior to "plan for the design and construction of an addition of a permanent statue, base relief, or other similar structure to the [FDR Memorial] to provide recognition of the fact that President Roosevelt's leadership in the struggle by the United States for peace, wellbeing, and human dignity was provided while the President used a wheelchair."

The National Park System Advisory Board established the Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial Committee to help the Board advise the Secretary on achieving appropriate recognition. The Committee will make its recommendations to the full Board, which will then advise the Secretary.

The designer of the memorial, Lawrence Halprin, has enthusiastically agreed to work with the Committee in their important deliberations toward integrating this important addition into the highly acclaimed memorial design.

The Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial was dedicated by President Clinton on

May 2, 1997. The memorial located next to the Tidal Basin and flanked by the cherry walk, is a rich composition of granite walls, bronze sculpture, inscriptions, waterfalls and pools, and hundreds of mature trees and shrubs. It is configured into four outdoor rooms which depict the people, programs and events that were pivotal during FDR's presidency.

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