Warne, William E. Papers

Assistant Secretary of the Interior, 1947-1951; U.S. Minister to Iran in Charge of the Technical Cooperation Program, 1951-1955.

The papers of William E. Warne consist of certificates, printed materials, and other items relating to his career in government.

Size: About 2.5 linear inches (approximately 200 pages).
Access: Open.
Copyright: The donor has given their copyright interest in these materials to the United States of America. Records created by employees of the U.S. Government as part of their official duties are also in the public domain. The copyright interest in other documents in the collection presumably belongs to the creators of those documents or their heirs.
Processed by: Randy Sowell (2024).

William Elmo Warne was born in Seafield, Indiana on September 2, 1905. He received an A.B. degree from the University of California in 1927 and worked as a journalist before joining the Bureau of Reclamation in the U.S. Department of the Interior in 1935. Warne became Assistant Commissioner of the Bureau of Reclamation in 1943 and Assistant Secretary of the Interior in 1947. From 1951 to 1955, he served as minister in charge of U.S. technical cooperation with Iran. He later held similar positions in Brazil and South Korea. Beginning in 1959, Warne worked for the state of California in the Department of Fish and Game, the Department of Agriculture, and the Department of Water Resources. He wrote several books, including Mission for Peace: Point 4 in Iran (1956). Warne died in Menlo Park, California on March 9, 1996.

The papers of William E. Warne consist of certificates, printed materials, and other items relating to his career in government. Included are certificates confirming his appointment as Assistant Secretary of the Interior in 1947; thanking him for his service as coordinator of economic assistance to South Korea; and commending his work as director of the California Department of Agriculture. The printed materials in the collection include press clippings relating to Warne’s career in government from 1946 to 1957, and a book containing articles about Iran during the 1950s and 1960s.

Other items in the collection include two cartoons concerning Warne's service in Iran as director of the "Point Four" program in that country.

The Truman Library also has an oral history interview with William E. Warne. A collection of Warne’s papers relating to his work as director of the California Department of Water Resources is at the University of California, Riverside.