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SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION    1420

of this election by the Chairman of the Committee.

REPORT OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

Mr. Robert V. Fleming, Chairman of the Executive Committee, presented the following report:

The customary detailed report of the Executive Committee for the last fiscal year which ended June 30, 1955, with the statement for public information as to investments and income, is included in the printed report of the Secretary of the Institution, which is on the table. 

As Chairman of the Executive Committee, I have been in regular contact with the Secretary as required by the current business of the Institution. The Executive Committee held one formal meeting on December 12, 1955.

The following matters, supplemental to this report, cover the first half of the present fiscal year.

It is my unwelcome task to announce that Dr. Vannevar Bush has tendered to me his resignation not only as a member of the Executive Committee but as a Regent. Dr. Bush was originally appointed a Regent from the District of Columbia in 1940. He succeeded as a Regent Dr. John C. Merriam, who was his predecessor as President of the great Carnegie Institution of Washington. The Smithsonian Institution owes a deep debt of gratitude to the vision and the tireless service of Dr. Bush in advancing its welfare.

Beside the meeting of the Executive Committee on December 12, 1955, a special meeting of the Board of Regents was called on September 16, 1955, but as a quorum was not present no official business was transacted.

Under my direction the staff of the Institution made a careful study of the work record, the size and the qualifications of the staff of many of the principal architectural firms of the country. The Secretary and Assistant Secretaries of the Institution held numerous conferences with appropriate officials of the General Services Administration concerning this matter, and informal discussions concerning the selection of architects have also been held with the Chairman of the Fine Arts Commission and other individuals experienced in the special problems of Federal architectural work in the Nation's Capital. At the meeting of the Executive Committee on December 12, 1955, the matter of the selection of architects was considered. This important and urgent subject has been considered again at this meeting under another article of the agenda.

The problem of an appropriate site for the National Air Museum of the Smithsonian Institution was also considered at the Executive Committee meeting held on December 12, 1955. I conferred with those Regents who were available in Washington on September 16, 1955 and then as Chairman of the Executive Committee, I conferred with Mr. Harland Bartholomew, Chairman of the National Capital Planning Commission, concerning the location of the proposed aircraft museum building. After this conference I sent a letter to the Chairman of the National Capital Planning Commission informing him that

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