Faith Ryan Whittlesey
| Faith Whittlesey | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| United States Ambassador to Switzerland | |
|
In office May 31, 1985 – June 14, 1988 |
|
| President | Ronald Reagan |
| Preceded by | John Lodge |
| Succeeded by | Philip D. Winn |
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In office October 23, 1981 – February 28, 1983 |
|
| President | Ronald Reagan |
| Preceded by | Richard D. Vine |
| Succeeded by | John Lodge |
| Director of the Office of Public Liaison | |
|
In office March 3, 1983 – March 19, 1985 |
|
| President | Ronald Reagan |
| Preceded by | Elizabeth Dole |
| Succeeded by | Linda Chavez |
| Member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives from the 166th district |
|
|
In office 1973–1976 |
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| Preceded by | George Johnson |
| Succeeded by | Stephen Freind |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
February 21, 1939 Jersey City, New Jersey, U.S. |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse(s) | Roger Whittlesey (1967–1974) |
| Children | 3 |
| Education |
Wells College (BA) University of Pennsylvania (JD) |
Faith Ryan Whittlesey (born 1939) is a former Pennsylvania Republican politician and White House Senior Staff member notable for her effort to communicate Reagan's entire policy agenda to U.S. opinion leaders and for bringing together for the first time in the Reagan White House evangelical, Catholic, and other conservative religious groups who opposed legalized abortion and were concerned about moral and cultural decline and the break-up of the family. These groups became a significant component of the Reagan coalition as they grew more politically self-conscious in the 1980s. Whittlesey also organized the White House Central American Outreach Group at the direction of Chief of Staff James Baker to provide information about Reagan's anti-communist policies in the region and was an active supporter of Reagan's defense buildup and the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI). Whittlesey served twice for a total of nearly 5 years as U.S. Ambassador to Switzerland and also served for 2 years on the Reagan White House Senior Staff as Assistant to the President for Public Liaison.
President Judge Stephen J. McEwen Jr., of the Superior Court of Pennsylvania noted that Whittlesey "reflected a certain elegance and bright image upon the Reagan Administration, both on the international scene as Ambassador to Switzerland and at the White House as the Director of Public Liaison, an office as little known as its impact was powerful." Whittlesey, a tenacious fighter on behalf of Reagan's policies, was not, however, a stranger to controversy during her time of involvement in the political arena.
Whittlesey was named Assistant to the President for Public Liaison in 1983 at the suggestion of Ronald Reagan's Ambassador to Austria and personal assistant Helene A. von Damm and with the urging of White House Chief of Staff James Baker and Deputy Chief of Staff Michael Deaver.
Her tenure was marked by initiatives to improve the access of conservative religious believers to the American political process and national policymaking. She was considered their most "aggressive ally" in the White House. She wrote a memo in October 1983 that fundamentalist and evangelical groups had done "little organizational work" for "the 1984 election period" and that to maintain Ronald Reagan's "credibility" with those groups, Catholics in particular, "the tuition tax credit bill must come up for Senate floor action this fall". She noted that school prayer was "not unlike the tuition tax credit issue. Politically we win if we get votes on the Senate floor". In 1985, she sent the anti-abortion film The Silent Scream, which was a documentary of an ultrasound abortion at three months produced in 1984 by anti-abortion activist and former NARAL founder Bernard Nathanson, to every member of Congress and arranged for a screening at the White House at which Nathanson presented the film.
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