Eugene P. Foley

Eugene P. Foley
5th Administrator of the Small Business Administration
In office
August 8, 1963 – September 10, 1965
PresidentJohn F. Kennedy
Lyndon B. Johnson
Preceded byJohn E. Horne
Succeeded byBernard L. Boutin
Personal details
Born(1928-11-22)November 22, 1928
Wabasha, Minnesota, United States
DiedDecember 30, 2015(2015-12-30) (aged 87)
Whitefish, Montana, United States
Political partyDemocratic

Eugene Patrick Foley (November 22, 1928 – December 30, 2015) was an American political strategist who served as Administrator of the Small Business Administration from 1963 to 1965.[1] He left to become the Assistant Secretary of Commerce in charge of the Economic Development Administration in October 1965 [2] for a year[3] before leaving government.[4] His work at the EDA was covered in books such as "Oakland's Not for Burning" 1968 by Amory Bradford and he wrote of it in "The Achieving Ghetto" (1968). On leaving the EDA in 1966 he said "because I could see the way the wind was blowing. Commerce was cracking down on EDA--the White House had decided that EDA should not be spending money in cities. Vietnam was eating everything up."[5]

Foley ran for the United States House of Representatives seat for Minnesota's 1st congressional district as a Democratic-Farmer-Labor candidate in 1958, but lost to Al Quie.[6]

He died of natural causes on December 30, 2015, in Whitefish, Montana at age 87.[7]

  1. ^ "July 23, 1963 - Kennedy picks Eugene Foley as head of SBA". Archives.chicagotribune.com. 1963-07-23. Retrieved 2017-06-18.
  2. ^ Implementation: How Great Expectations in Washington are Dashed in Oakland; Or, Why It's Amazing that Federal Programs Work at All, This Being a Saga of the Economic Development Administration as Told by Two Sympathetic Observers Who Seek to Build Morals on a Foundation of Ruined Hopes. By Jeffrey L. Pressman and Aaron Wildavsky, Second Edition 1979, pg. 11
  3. ^ Pressman and Wildavsky, 1979, p. 31
  4. ^ "Eugene P. Foley, Dreamer with Twinkle in His Eye, Pioneered Affirmative Action and Championed Small Business". The Vineyard Gazette. 2016-01-05. Retrieved 2017-06-18.
  5. ^ Pressman and Wildavsky, 1979, p. 31
  6. ^ "Minnesota Historical Election Archive".
  7. ^ "Eugene P. Foley, Dreamer with Twinkle in His Eye, Pioneered Affirmative Action and Championed Small Business". The Vineyard Gazette. 2016-01-05. Retrieved 2017-06-18.