Foreword

Marquis' Who's Who refers to William T. Golden simply as "Trustee." First and foremost, he has been and remains a trustee for science. As Who's Who goes on to note, Bill has served, or is currently serving, on the boards of such institutions as the American Museum of Natural History and Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. He is a recent president of the New York Academy of Sciences, a cochair (with Joshua Lederberg) of the Carnegie Commission on Science, Technology and Government, and, of course, the perennial treasurer of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). The long-term character of that trusteeship is demonstrated by his role in helping to shape three important U.S. government science organizations: the Atomic Energy Commission (whose functions have now been largely absorbed by the Department of Energy), the presidential science advisory system and, of course, the National Science Foundation.

On May 8, 1991, the National Science Board presented Bill with a one-of-a-kind citation for Sustained and Exemplary Contributions to Science Policy, which begins as follows:

For his seminal leadership in the articulation and implementation of national science policy, and for his contributions to preserving the historical science policy record.

As a White House consultant during the Korean conflict, he diligently advanced the concept that science advice is essential to governance at the presidential level.

As a trusted confidant to both science and government, he helped determine the substance and direction of the newly established but still undefined National Science Foundation.

As both student of, and contributor to, contemporary scientific affairs, he has provided, by means of three published volumes, a rich archive on the evolution of science policy for the benefit of future historians.

The selection of memoranda in this volume, written 45 years ago, demonstrate that Bill’s sense of trusteeship extends to preservation of the historical record. We are fortunate in that respect, since the pains he took to record his activities at that time provide fascinating insights into a period of less than a year during which the National Science Foundation was activated, the first presidential science advisory system was created, and what we now sometimes call the Cold-War science policy model was firmly established. We are also fortunate that the AAAS, by arranging to publish this selection, has made these first hand insights available to a wide audience.

Briefly: in September 1950, with the Korean War three months old and the threat of a wider war by no means discounted, Bill was summoned from New York to Washington as a special consultant to the Bureau of the Budget with the charge to prepare a report, for President Truman, on how the nation might best mobilize its scientific resources for a possible protracted military emergency. One of the notable accomplishments of his consultancy, which terminated in April 1951, was a December 18, 1950, memorandum to the president recommending the establishment of a science advisory system. Another was a memorandum which outlined, in considerable detail, a possible program for the National Science Foundation. The Bureau of the Budget transmitted that memorandum on to the National Science Board for consideration at its fourth meeting on March 8-9, 1951 -- the same meeting at which the President’s intention to nominate Alan T. Waterman as the first director of the National Science Foundation was announced. The record indicates that many of Bill’s ideas have since become an accepted part of the Foundation’s activities.

These two results by themselves would have been more than sufficient to demonstrate the prescience of Elmer Staats, Bill Carey, and others of their colleagues at the Bureau of the Budget in arranging for Bill’s consultancy. The way he chose to go about addressing his charge demonstrates the respect in which Bill was already widely held 45 years ago, as well as his sense of history: namely, he chose to conduct extensive interviews with virtually all the leading scientist-spokesmen of that era, and with leading administrators in the principal military and civilian scientific departments of the U.S. government. The insights he gained during the course of those conversations provided the basis for his memoranda on the science advisory system and on a recommended program for the National Science Foundation.

Bill recalls that he would almost invariably sit down at the end of each day with a dictaphone equipped with a recording cylinder to recount the details of the conversations he had conducted during the preceding hours -- on many occasions, two, and on some occasions three or even four memos each day. Transcriptions taken from those wax discs resulted in almost 392 pages of memoranda, bound copies of which Bill faithfully preserved and has recently deposited in five selected libraries for use by qualified scholars. Many who peruse the selection of memoranda which the AAAS has made available in this volume will no doubt want to go to one of those five libraries to consult the entire set.

The National Science Board's May 1991 citation concludes by picking up and amplifying on the single word used by Who’s Who to characterize Bill's career:

A man noted as much for his personal generosity as for his rigorous ethical standards, he well deserves to be recognized as this country's foremost trustee of science.

The remarks Bill made in accepting this citation indicate that he regards trusteeship as a necessary part of citizenship, as well as the intimate link he discerns between science and the concept of opportunity, a concept he regards as central to the life of the nation he has served so well:

In ancient times, under very different circumstances, one of our ancestors answered a question with a question. As it is said in Scripture: Hashomer auchee annochee? Am I my brother's keeper? The answer for each of us fortunate ones, of course, is yes. We are indeed our brothers' and our sisters' keepers. That is our duty and our opportunity.

Homage, then, to science. Science is assuredly "The Endless Frontier"; and our country is indeed the land of opportunity. Let us all do all that we can to keep it that way and to make it better.

To all my friends who are here -- wise, good-humored, supportive, indulgent, and loyally critical -- and to those who live in my memory, I say: Thank you; I am grateful.

All of us remain grateful to Bill for that challenge and for his long service as trustee of science.

Neal Lane, Director
National Science Foundation
April 1995