Harlow, Bryce Nathaniel, 1916-1987
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Harlow, Bryce Nathaniel, 1916-1987Description:
Bio: Bryce Nathaniel Harlow (1916-1987) was raised in Oklahoma City. Interested in public service, he attended the University of Oklahoma to study political science, graduating with a B.A. degree and a Phi Beta Kappa key in 1936. Harlow continued his studies at the University of Texas. In 1938 Harlow left the southwest for Washington, D.C., and secured a job as an assistant librarian in the House of Representatives. In 1940, with war approaching, he left his job on Capitol Hill to join the army, in which he served as part of the congressional liaison staff of the army chief of staff, General George C. Marshall. In the five years Harlow remained on Marshall''s staff he rose from lieutenant to lieutenant colonel.Harlow returned to civilian life in 1947 as director of the professional staff of the House Armed Services Committee. He held this position until he joined the administration of President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1952 as an administrative assistant. Eisenhower was the first president to dispatch an official White House lobbyist, General Wilton Persons, to Capitol Hill. Persons had two main assistants, one being Harlow, who concentrated his efforts on the House of Representatives. Although himself a Republican, Harlow was successful in soliciting the aid of the two most influential Texan Democrats on Capitol Hill in the 1950s, Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn and Senate Majority Leader Lyndon B. Johnson. Harlow quickly became a vital staff member in the Eisenhower White House. Harlow became President Nixon''s first appointee, announced only a week after the election. Nixon soon made Harlow a counselor to the president in all fields of national affairs.