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The Donald S. Fredrickson Papers

Title:
"Remarks to the NIH Community" [Resignation announcement]
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transcript of audio Transcript of Audio

Running Time:
1 minute, 33 seconds
Date:
1981-06-19 (June 19, 1981)
Creator:
National Institutes of Health
Source:
"Remarks to the NIH Community." National Institutes of Health. 01:58:53:00 - 02:00:26:00 on DigiBeta tape.
Metadata Record "Remarks to the NIH Community" [Video] (June 19, 1981)
Rights:
This item is in the public domain. It may be used without permission.
Exhibit Category:
NIH Director, 1975-1981: Biomedical Research in a Time of Trial
Relation:
Metadata Record "Remarks to the NIH Community" [Reflecting on the past] (June 19, 1981)
Metadata Record "Remarks to the NIH Community" [Thinking of the future] (June 19, 1981)
Metadata Record [Resignation] Letter from Donald S. Fredrickson to President Ronald Reagan (June 18, 1981)
Box Number: 47
Folder Number: 7
Unique Identifier:
FFBBNL
Document Type:
Speeches
Video recordings
Excerpts
Language:
English
Format:
image/jpeg
image/tif
video/quicktime
video/x-pn-realvideo
Physical Condition:
Good
Series: Audio-Visual Materials, 1978-1997
SubSeries: Visual Materials, 1978-1997
Folder: [Compiliation] Director's Award 1981 and Resignation 1981 Jun 19, 1981
Transcript:
DONALD S. FREDRICKSON: This July, I am completing my fourth seven-year term at NIH. It seems as exhilarating and certainly as worthwhile as in the summer of 1953, when my wife and I arrived in Bethesda. The last six years, however, I must confess, have been spent in the relentless company of the administrative burdens of the Director. I have decided with great difficulty and much ambivalence, that it's time for me to shed those burdens for a while, lest I forget completely how to be a scientist and a physician.
And therefore, yesterday I sent to the President a letter containing these sentences:
Dear Mr. President,
I respectfully request that on the first day of July you accept my resignation as Director of the National Institutes of Health. It is for personal reasons that I take leave of this position, which I have been honored to hold these past six years. Before then, I was also privileged to spend much of my scientific career at the National Institutes of Health.
I am most grateful, I wrote, for the continuing trust which you and Presidents Ford and Carter have extended in allowing me to lead this remarkable institution.
Metadata Last Modified Date:
2005-06-17
U.S. National Library of Medicine, 8600 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, MD 20894
National Institutes of Health, Department of Health & Human Services
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