A WOMAN WHO GETS THINGS DONE

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31144, 22 August 1966, Page 2

A WOMAN WHO GETS THINGS DONE

Most Americans know the Commissioner of the United States Public Housing Administration as Mrs Marie McGuire. But to the Sioux and Assiniboine Indian tribes at Fort Peck, Montana, she is U-Wasti-Win, or “Get Things Done Woman.”

Now one of the highest placed women in the American Government Commissioner McGuire heads an agency that gives financial and planning assistance to local communities for subsidised low-rent housing. The tribes chose well in selecting their name for her, for in more than 20 years of activity in her field, she has indeed been getting things done for people who need low-rent public housing. Tall, svelte and handsome with silver hair that frames a mobile face, Mrs McGuire is distinguished for her charm, feminine manner and genuine friendliness. She has been called “a practical visionary ... a tough fighter for lofty but attainable goals and rigid in her adherence to the principles of public service.” Born in Washington in 1904 Mrs McGuire earned a degree in journalism at George Washington University there, but practised for only about a year after she married in 1929 and moved to Texas.

“I was always interested in housing and city planning,” she says, “so when the University of Texas offered a course in the field, 1 took it, hoping to have a hand in the community-building we would need to service the industrial war effort.’’ After the war she studied other phases of housing at the University of Houston.

vided she can go by train. “I love train travel,” she says. “I can meditate in a constructive way and get a lot of work done. The motion is like the ebb and flow of the ocean, and knitting on a train is the most relaxing thing I know.” In 1964, the American Institute of Architects gave her a medal of honour, its first to a woman non-member. It was awarded to recognise her work in fostering “excellence of design in shelter for low-income American families and elderly citizens.” A member of more than a dozen professional and service organisations. Mrs McGuire writes and speaks extensively in her special field.

“I don’t mind domestic responsibility,” she says, “it’s just a matter of time. I can’t stay up late at night and get up in the morning.”

Mrs McGuire started her career as a project manager for the Houston Housing Authority. She believes that such a job—which she thinks should combine the duties of building superintendent with the role of confidante, arbiter, counsellor and comforter—is one for which women are especially qualified. In her seven years with the Houston programme, Mrs McGuire rose to assistant exective director, leaving to become executive director of the San Antonio Housing Authority. It was in San Antonio that she gained national promin. ence as a pioneer in providing public housing especially adapted to the physical and psychological needs of the elderly. In 1961, President Kennedy appointed Mrs McGuire to her present position. Seated in her spacious office, the Commissioner says, “I certainly never thought I’d be here. I’ve had to move around to the other side of the table and look at the local housing authorities from the standpoint of Federal interest and responsibility.” Her present job requires a great deal of travel, which is fine with Mrs McGuire, pro-

Her work and related activities leave her almost no time for hobbies. She loves music and goes to concerts and the theatre as often as possible, but has given up golf and piano playing for lack of time to practise. One night a week Mrs McGuire spends with her family, which includes a brother and an identical twin sister whose work has also centred mainly on problems of the ageing. “We’v e had a kind of mental telepathy between us all our lives,” Mrs McGuire says. “We’ve had so many unusual things happen to us, I guess you might call it extrasensory perception.” Widowed in 1962, Mrs McGuire lives alone in an apartment from which she can walk to her office. She does her own housework except for a maid one day a week, and occasionally entertains small, informal groups at dinner.