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OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT

July 5, 1978

Mr. W.K. Reilly

President

Conservation Foundation

1717 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20036

Dear Mr. Reilly:

One of the carry over items that I am glad to have been able to
clear up over this last weekend, having just now started on my
responsibilities in this office, was the allocation of the Fairfield
Osborn Lectureship for 1978. JI do not know whether Mr. Brooks had
time to communicate my letter of June 29 to you in which I promised
to make an expeditious inquiry as to the University's responsibility
in this matter. Having had an opportunity to review that file and
discuss the question with my staff, IL concluded that we should
enthusiastically accept the proposal by Mr. Brooks and Mr. Conway
that this year's lectureship be delegated to the Conservation
Foundation. To that end I have instructed our comptroller to transmit
a check in the amount of $8500 to you representing the current annual
income on the lectureship fund.

As I also indicated in my letter to Mr. Brooks I have been a
grateful follower of the work of the foundation for many years and am
again pleased that this allocation can be joined with the foundation's
anniversary celebration and I certainly wish you every success in the
outcome of that event in a most worthy cause.

I would also like to suggest a regularization of the procedure
for the annual disposition of the lectureship income: A matter that
my predecessor, Fred Seitz, has also discussed with Laurance Rockefeller.
We agree that the most efficient way to achieve the aims of the original
gift would be to rotate the responsibility to each of our three
institutions rather than attempt in each given year to reach a consensus.
I believe that you and Mr. Conway have concurred in this proposal. I
assume then that it would also be agreeable if the New York Zoological
Society were to have this responsibility for 1979, The Rockefeller in
1980 and thenceforth in the same cyclical pattern.

If I hear no further dissent, and hardly expect to, I will
instruct our comptroller to respond accordingly in future to instructions

for payment from the relevant executive officer in a given year.
Page 2 7-5-78
Reilly

Among the current activities of the foundation, I was particularly
interested to see mentioned in your Annual Report of your efforts in
connection with TSCA and I would be most interested to get more details
about that. There are many ways in which, I believe, the scientific
resources of The Rockefeller University could make important contributions
to dealing with knotty dilemmas in social policy and high on my own
agenda is the seeking out of effective inter-institutional connections
to help bridge the science/policy poles. I will also be taking a more
active role, than was possible before, as a member of the board of
NRDC when I have settled in New York City. Your suggestions about other
institutional bridgeheads along this axis would be most welcome.

Yours-ayncerelys
)

soanyd reterters

JL/gel

cc Ernest Brooks
William G. Conway
Laurance Rockefeller
-Ddavid Lyons - Controller, R.U.

bee: GW-L.
F. S.

P.S. Please, at your convenience, let us have a report on the
expenditure of the allocation. for the files on the lectureship
which are maintained here.

RW