Kermit Gordon (July 3, 1916 – June 21, 1976) was Director of the United States Bureau of the Budget (now the

Office of Management and Budget The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is the largest office within the Executive Office of the President of the United States (EOP). OMB's most prominent function is to produce the president's budget, but it also examines agency programs, pol ...

) (December 28, 1962 – June 1, 1965) during the administration of

John F. Kennedy John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination ...

. He continued to serve in this capacity in the Lyndon Johnson administration. He oversaw the creation of the first budgets for Johnson's

Great Society The Great Society was a set of domestic programs in the United States launched by Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964–65. The term was first coined during a 1964 commencement address by President Lyndon B. Johnson at the Universit ...

domestic agenda. Gordon was a member of the

Council of Economic Advisors The Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) is a United States agency within the Executive Office of the President established in 1946, which advises the President of the United States on economic policy. The CEA provides much of the empirical resea ...

, 1961-1962. After he retired from government service, he joined the

Brookings Institution The Brookings Institution, often stylized as simply Brookings, is an American research group founded in 1916. Located on Think Tank Row in Washington, D.C., the organization conducts research and education in the social sciences, primarily in e ...

, first as vice president (1965–1967) and then as its president for nearly a decade (1967–1976). During his tenure, Brookings developed a left-of-center reputation chiefly because Gordon was a supporter of the

and critic of the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vietnam a ...

. Born in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

, Gordon graduated from

Upper Darby High School Upper Darby High School (UDHS) is a four-year public high school located in Upper Darby Township, Delaware County, Pennsylvania, United States, as part of the Upper Darby School District. UDHS is also the oldest high school in Delaware County, ...

in 1933. He was inducted into Upper Darby High School's Wall of Fame posthumously, in 1980. After graduating from Swarthmore College in 1938, he was a Rhodes Scholar (1938–1939) and a Harvard administrative fellow. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

he worked in the

Office of Price Administration The Office of Price Administration (OPA) was established within the Office for Emergency Management of the United States government by Executive Order 8875 on August 28, 1941. The functions of the OPA were originally to control money (price contr ...

before serving in the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...

. After the war he was a special assistant in the Department of State's Office of Assistant Secretary of Economic Affairs until 1946, when he joined the faculty of

Williams College Williams College is a private liberal arts college in Williamstown, Massachusetts. It was established as a men's college in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim Williams, a colonist from the Province of Massachusetts Bay who was kill ...

. He was a professor of economics at Williams from 1955 until he joined the Kennedy Administration as a member of the Council of Economic Advisors. During his time at Brookings, he served on several federal government boards including as Chairman of the Health Insurance Advisory Council (1965–1967), member of the Advisory Council on Social Security (1968–1971), and member of the Federal Pay Board (1971–1972). He was an elected member of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, a ...

and the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...

References

External links

Brookings Institution page on Gordon's tenure

Upper Darby High School Wall of Fame
* , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Gordon, Kermit 1916 births 1976 deaths American Rhodes Scholars Brookings Institution people Directors of the Office of Management and Budget Harvard Fellows Lyndon B. Johnson administration personnel Kennedy administration personnel People from Philadelphia Swarthmore College alumni United States Council of Economic Advisers Urban Institute people Members of the American Philosophical Society