Records of the Menninger Foundation Board of Trustees

Abstract: Records from the Menninger Foundation Board of Trustees provide an excellent insight into both the workings of the board and into high level operational and administrative changes and trends at Menninger facilities. The records are especially strong in recording what was discussed at annual meetings and at meetings held in between by various committees, especially the Executive and Finance Committees. The records also provide information about who the trustees were for Menninger, especially from the 1940s-1970s, an influential and notable set of individuals from around the United States.

Information about corporate reorganization and about corporate culture can also be found in this group of records. While the records span the 20th century from when an initial Board of Trustees was created until the foundation began dissolving, the bulk of the materials date from the 1970s and 1980s.

Administrative History: In 1941 an initial Menninger Foundation for Psychiatric Education and Research was established, governed by a Board of Trustees. This initial corporation was small and held no administrative power, accepting small donations on behalf of the main Menninger organization. Only by the middle of 1946 did all Menninger institutions, including the clinic, the sanitarium, and the Southard School for children, become absorbed into the not-for-profit foundation. A board of governors was also established around this time, a body that provided guidance but apparently held no authority over the foundation.

In the mid-1960s after Roy Menninger took over the presidency when his father Will died, Dr. Roy ensured that the foundation by-laws were rewritten, disbanding the board of governors and enlarging the Board of Trustees to a hundred-member board. At the same time an Executive Committee, consisting of 15 trustees, was created in order to focus the trustees' efforts to guide the Foundation and raise money for it. Additional committees followed, some long-standing--such as the Finance Committee, Visiting Committees, and the Nominating Committee--and others only existing briefly, created in order to focus on certain issues or topics such as land utilization, developing or re-drafting policies regarding pensions and human resources, and for other focused efforts.

In 1986, a committee was created to explore restructuring the Menninger Foundation's corporate structure. By 1988, this committee's recommendations were implemented: the trustees remained, and a Board of Directors was created, essentially taking over the duties of the Executive Committee. The Menninger Foundation became the parent organization to three subsidiary corporations: the Menninger Clinic for all medical and patient work, the Menninger Fund for fund raising, and the Menninger Corporation (the only for-profit corporation venture of the group, for publishing and other duties). Each subsidiary also had its own managing Board of Directors.

By 2001 the foundation and subsidiary efforts began breaking down. In 2003 the Menninger Clinic moved south to Houston, Texas, and the Menninger Foundation and its boards of trustees were dissolved.