Past and Present Directors of Budget

Mary Ann Lawler 1993-1998

Mary Ann Lawler was appointed as the first woman Director of Budget in July 1993. She served as Director until her retirement in December 1998.

Lawler joined the Office of Budget in 1982, serving first as a budget analyst covering the Bureau of Indian Affairs and then as chief of Division of Budget Operations (A). In that capacity she was responsible for Departmental oversight of the budgets of the Bureau of Land Management, the Office of Surface Mining, the Minerals Management Service, the U.S. Geological Survey, the Bureau of Mines, and Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Lawler began her Federal career with the Internal Revenue Service. She spent 15 years with the National Park Service, first in the Midwest Regional Office in Omaha, Nebraska, and later in Washington in various offices of program planning, policy, and budget. She joined the Office of the Secretary in 1980 as a desk officer in the Executive Secretariat, covering the bureaus under the Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks. She spent two years as an analyst in the Department's Office of Policy Analysis before transferring to the Office of Budget in 1982.

After retiring, Lawler became active in native plant conservation. She served on the Boards of the Virginia Native Plant Society and the Mid-Atlantic Exotic Pest Plant Council for several years. She is also a member of the Art League of Alexandria.

Lawler is a native of Green Bay, Wisconsin. She graduated from the University of Maryland, with a B.A. in economics.

Robert J. Lamb 1990-1993

Bob Lamb served as acting Director and then Director of the Office of Budget from 1990 to 1993. He continued to have oversight responsibility for the Department's budget from 1993 to 2002 as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Budget and Finance.

From 2002 to 2006, Lamb was senior advisor for management and collaborative action to the Assistant Secretary-Policy, Management and Budget. In this capacity, he had a lead role in planning the 2005 White House Conference on Cooperative Conservation. He retired in 2006 to accept the position of executive director of the Friends of the National Zoo.

Before becoming Director of Budget, Lamb was chief of Division of Budget Operations (B) in the Office of Budget, a position to which he was appointed in 1983. He joined the Interior Department in 1977 as the budget officer for the Bureau of Mines. He served for over three years as budget officer and then became the Bureau's congressional liaison officer.

Lamb began his Federal career in the Department of Health, Education and Welfare as a management intern in 1971. From 1974 to 1977, he was a budget analyst in the Public Health Service, where he held a number of positions, including one in which he had budget review responsibility for the programs of the National Institutes of Health.

Prior to joining the Federal government, Lamb was a teacher and Director of Humanities at Chaminade High School in Dayton, Ohio.

Lamb holds a B.A. from the University of Dayton, a Masters of Liberal Arts degree from Johns Hopkins University and a M.B.A. from George Washington University.

Anthony L. Itteilag 1984-1990

Tony Itteilag joined the Department of the Interior as Director of the Office of Budget in 1984. He had served for the prior four years as Deputy Assistant Secretary-Budget in the Department of Health and Human Services.

As Budget Director, Itteilag presided over the first extensive use of computer technology within the Budget Office and for budget briefings and Congressional hearing preparation for Secretaries Don Hodel and Manuel Lujan. He also expanded the scope of the annual Budget Highlights book.

In 1990, Itteilag returned to HHS as Deputy Assistant Secretary-Management and Budget for the U. S. Public Health Service.

In January 1996, Itteilag became Deputy Director for Management and Chief Financial Officer at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), where he also served as Acting Chief Information Officer for nearly two years. He retired from Federal service in May 2002. Subsequently, Itteilag has served as a management consultant in the Office of the Director, National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, NIH. He also served on the Committee on Accelerating the Research, Development, and Acquisition of Medical Countermeasures Against Biological Warfare Agents at the National Academy of Sciences in 2003 to 2004.

Itteilag began his Federal career in 1964 as a management intern in the Department of the Navy. He remained with the Department of the Navy until 1972, serving as head of the Procurement of Aircraft and Missiles budget section from 1969 to 1972.

From 1972 to 1975 he was chief of the Support Programs budget branch at Action. In 1975, he joined the then-Department of Health, Education and Welfare as chief of the Budget Branch in the Public Health Service. From 1978 to 1980 he served at the Department level in HEW/HHS as Director of the Division of Budget Policy and Management.

Itteilag was born in Westerly, Rhode Island and received his B.A. from the University of Rhode Island.

William C. Klostermeyer 1984

Bill Klostermeyer was acting Director of Budget in 1984, serving on detail from his position as Assistant Commissioner for Administration and Liaison of the Bureau of Reclamation. He handled presentation of the fiscal year 1985 budget and formulation of the 1986 budget.

Klostermeyer was a 33-year employee of the Bureau of Reclamation, starting as a student trainee at Grand Island, Nebraska. He worked as a civil engineer on the Niobrara-Lower Platte Projects and then moved to Denver to help plan and develop water projects in Nebraska and Colorado. He transferred to Washington, D.C. in 1968. He was appointed assistant chief of the Division of Program Coordination in 1975 and chief of the Division in 1980.

Klostermeyer was Assistant Commissioner from Administration and Liaison from 1981 until his retirement in 1989.

Klostermeyer was born in Omaha, Nebraska and graduated from the University of Nebraska at Lincoln in 1958.

Joseph W. Gorrell 1981-1984

Joe Gorrell was appointed Director of Budget in 1981. In 1984, he moved to the office of the Assistant Secretary for Policy, Budget and Administration as a deputy assistant secretary. He was principal deputy from 1986 to 1988.

Gorrell began his Federal service as a summer employee of the U.S. Forest Service in 1951. After receiving a forestry degree from Purdue University, he was a forester in national forests in northern California for 10 years. He then spent a year at the Yale School of Forestry and four years in Forest Service headquarters.

Gorrell joined the Bureau of the Budget in 1969 as an examiner in the Natural Resources Division. His assignments included the Bureau of Land Management and the Bureau of Indian Affairs. He also coordinated the Administration's response to the recommendations of the Public Land Law Review Commission and worked on initial implementation of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act.

His work on ANSCA led to his coming to the Department in 1973 as a member of the staff of the Assistant Secretary for Land and Water Resources. He later served as Deputy Director of the Bureau of Outdoor Recreation and as budget officer for the Bureau of Indian Affairs. He joined the Office of Budget as deputy director in 1978.

In 1988, Gorrell was appointed Associate Director for Management Systems in the National Park Service. He retired from NPS in 1995.

In addition to his B.A. in forestry from Purdue University, Gorrell received master's degrees in forestry from the University of California at Berkeley and Yale. He earned a law degree from Catholic University in 1968. In retirement he has been active as a volunteer lawyer for Rappahannock Legal Services in Fredericksburg, Virginia. In 2005 he received the Virginia State Bar's Lewis F. Powell award for pro bono legal services.

William D. Bettenberg 1978-1981

Bill Bettenberg served as Director, Office of Budget, from 1978 to 1981. He was Deputy Director from 1974 to 1978 and served a brief stint as Director of the Department of Energy's Budget Office in the summer of 1978 before returning to Interior as acting Director and then Director of the Budget Office. During his tenure, the Office of Budget was substantially expanded to include two examining divisions and a technical budget staff. The annual Budget Highlights book was initiated during his tenure.

Bettenberg began his federal career in 1964 as a management intern in the Bureau of Mines where he helped automate that bureau's payroll system and led a team to design an automated accounting system. He subsequently served as a budget and then program analyst in the bureau before joining the staff of the Assistant Secretary Program Policy as a policy analyst in 1972.

Subsequent to his time in the Office of Budget, Bettenberg served as deputy for policy and budget to the Assistant Secretary for Policy, Budget and Administration (1981-83); Director, Minerals Management Service (1983-88); and Associate Director Offshore Minerals in the MMS (1988-90). He served as Deputy Assistant Secretary - Indian Affairs and Special Assistant to the Secretary from 1990 to 1993 and then as Deputy Director and Director of Interior's Office of Policy Analysis from 1993 until his retirement in 2004.

Bettenberg was born in Inglewood, California and grew up in Richland, Washington. He received bachelor's and master's degrees in political science from the University of Washington and subsequently returned to the University of Washington under the National Institute of Public Affairs Career Education Program to study natural resource policy and economics in 1969-70. Upon retirement, he enrolled as a JD candidate at the University of Wisconsin and currently lives in Madison, Wisconsin.

Francis M. Wiles 1970-1978

Frank Wiles served as Director of Budget from 1970 to 1978. He was deputy director for two years before becoming director and assistant financial manager in the Office of Budget from 1966 to 1968.

Wiles was budget officer for the Bureau of Indian Affairs from 1958 to 1966. Earlier in his career with the Department, he served in various administrative and accounting positions with the U.S. Geological Survey and the Office of Territories and as a budget and finance examiner on the Department's budget staff.

Wiles was born in the District of Columbia and received a Bachelor of Commercial Science Degree from Benjamin Franklin University. He served in the U.S. Coast Guard from 1942 to 1945.

Richard R. Hite 1969-1970

Dick Hite came to the Department as Director of Budget in September 1969, after three years as an examiner in the General Government Management Division of the Bureau of the Budget.

In 1970, Hite became deputy to the Assistant Secretary for Administration. He served until 1979, when he returned to the Office of Management and Budget as deputy associate director for intergovernmental affairs.

In 1981, Hite was appointed principal deputy to the Assistant Secretary for Policy, Budget and Administration. He retired from this position in 1986.

Hite began his Federal career as a management intern in the Department of the Navy in 1950. From 1954 to 1966 he was a management and budget analyst in headquarters of the Department of the Army.

Hite was born in Columbus, Georgia, but was raised in the Washington, D.C. area. He served in the Navy during World War II and graduated from American University with a B.A. in economics in 1950. He died in 1992.

Daniel M. Ogden, Jr. 1967-1968

Dan Ogden served as Director of Budget in 1967 and 1968. He joined the Department of the Interior in 1961 and had served on the Department's program resources staff and as Assistant Director for Planning and Research in the Bureau of Outdoor Recreation.

Before coming to the Department, Ogden was a member of the faculty at Washington State University from 1949 to 1961. After leaving the Department, he was Dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at Colorado State University in Fort Collins from 1968 to 1976. In 1976, he ran unsuccessfully for Congress in Colorado's 4th District.

In 1978, Ogden was named director of the Office of Power Marketing Coordination in the Department of Energy, with oversight responsibility for the five Federal power marketing agencies. He left that post in 1984 to be manager of the Public Power Council in Portland, Oregon. He retired in 1988.

Ogden was born in Clarksburg, West Virginia and graduated from Washington State University with a BA in political science in 1944. He received his master's degree and doctorate in political science from the University of Chicago in 1947 and 1949. During World War II, Ogden served in the 89th Infantry.

Sidney D. Larson 1952-1967

Sidney Larson became director of the Division of Budget and Finance in 1952 and held the position until his death in 1967. During his tenure, the Division was renamed the Office of Budget.

Larson was born in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and received B.A. and master's degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Colorado. He also attended the University of Denver Law School.

Larson joined the Bureau of Reclamation in Denver as a junior engineer in 1934 and transferred to the Bureau's Washington office in 1946. He came to the Office of the Secretary in 1950.

D. Otis Beasley 1950-1952

Otis Beasley was appointed director of the Division of Budget and Finance in 1950, after serving as assistant director since establishment of the Division in 1943. When Vernon Northrop was appointed Under Secretary in 1952, Beasley succeeded him as Administrative Assistant Secretary. He would hold this post until his retirement in 1965.

Beasley, a native of Rockport, Mississippi, began his Federal career as a clerk typist in the Department of the Army in 1928. He later worked as an accounting clerk and bookkeeper and was budget officer for the U.S. Geological Survey in 1941 and 1942.

Beasley received a B.A. from George Washington University in 1934 and a law degree in 1941. After retirement from Federal service he practiced law in Washington, D.C. He died in 1975.

Vernon D. Northrop 1943-1950

Vernon Northrop joined the Department of the Interior as director of the Division of Budget and Administrative Management in 1943. In 1950, he was appointed to the then-newly established position of Administrative Assistant Secretary. Two years later, he received a recess appointment from President Truman to serve as Under Secretary.

Northrop began his Federal career in the 1920's when he was a student at George Washington University, serving as a clerk in the House of Representatives. He later went to work in the Department of Commerce. During the Depression, he worked for the Federal Emergency Relief Administration and the National Youth Administration. After the outbreak of World War II, he was an official at the War Manpower Administration and then the Office of Economic Warfare.

Northrop left Federal service at the end of the Truman Administration. In 1954 and 1955, he was the chief financial and management official for the City of Philadelphia. From 1956 to 1961 he was a business executive in Philadelphia.

Northrop returned to Washington in 1961 to serve as the Federal member of the Delaware River Basin Commission. He retired in 1969.

Northrop received a B.A. and a master's degree in public administration from George Washington University. Northrop was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania. He died in 1986.