Friends of the National World War II Memorial

Photo by Pat Meyers

Rolland Kidder is Executive Director of Friends of the National World War Memorial, Inc. From 1994 to 2001, Mr. Kidder served as a Presidential-appointed Commissioner of the American Battle Monuments (ABMC) and was a member of its World War II Memorial Committee. He is also author of the book, A Hometown Went to War, an oral history of some 37 veterans describing their experiences during World War II. He is a Navy Vietnam War veteran having served as a Patrol Officer with River Division 535 in the Mekong Delta in 1969 and 1970. Mr. Kidder served in the New York State Assembly from 1975-1982, and operated his own Appalachian-based natural gas drilling company from 1984-1994. Subsequent to that he worked in an investment advisory firm for ten years and, most recently, was the Executive Director of the Robert H. Jackson Center in Jamestown, NY – the hometown of Supreme Court Justice and Chief Nuremberg Prosecutor, Robert H. Jackson. Mr. Kidder is a graduate of Houghton College, Evangelical Theological Seminary, and the State University of New York at Buffalo Law School. He and his wife Jane are the parents of four children and eight grandchildren.

Christopher L. Davis is President of the Money Management Institute, a national organization representing the financial services industry and the many firms that deliver money management services to individual and institutional investors. Mr. Davis manages the operations of the rapidly growing association and represents the industry on a wide range of legislative, regulatory and investment issues. Before joining the MMI, Mr. Davis was with the Washington, DC law firm of Surrey & Morse. Earlier, Mr. Davis held several positions in the White House during the administration of President Carter, including Special Assistant to the President for Congressional Liaison. Mr. Davis, 58, is a 1971 graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and a 1975 graduate of the State University of New York at Buffalo School of Law.

Brigadier General Pat Foote, USA, (Ret.), a native of Durham, North Carolina, served over 30 years of active duty with the United States Army. Commissioned in 1960, she commanded soldiers at the company, battalion, brigade and major installation levels of authority. She was the first woman Army officer to serve on the faculty of the U.S. Army War College, the first woman to command an Army brigade in Europe and the first (and only) woman to date to be appointed Army Deputy Inspector General for Inspections. Staff assignments included a tour of duty in Vietnam and duty as Plans and Projects Officer for the Director of the Women’s Army Corps in the early 70’s. Her final assignment, before her retirement in 1989, was as Commanding General, Fort Belvoir, Virginia. She was recalled to active duty in 1996 to serve as Vice Chair of the Secretary of the Army’s Senior Review Panel on Sexual Harassment, and resumed her retired status in 1997. Today, she continues to be involved in assessing current military personnel policies and public policy issues. She serves as a director on a number of boards including the Alliance for National Defense, Friends of the National World War II Memorial, Colmek Systems Engineering, Inc., and the Army Women’s Foundation Advisory Board.

Vikki Keys is currently Chief Executive Officer, Keys Associates, LLC, a firm dedicated to building links between public and private sector organizations, serving a broad range of clients who manage or support resources and facilities for public benefit. Ms. Keys serves on the Boards of Directors of the Trust for the National Mall and the Friends of the World War II Memorial, and is a member of the Corporate Advisory Board for Golf Course Specialists, Inc. Ms. Keys retired from the National Park Service as Superintendent of the National Mall & Memorial Parks, in Washington, D.C., with more than 30 years of experience in public use management. She has extensive governmental, legislative, business, law enforcement, and philanthropic experience and contacts, and possesses exceptional communications and strategic planning ability. Ms. Keys has proven success in cultivating relationships with business leaders and government executives. As National Park Service Superintendent, Ms. Keys managed sites within the monumental core of Washington, D.C. including the principal symbols of our National heritage and 1000 acres of cultural, natural and recreational areas within walking distance of the White House. She directed the highly successful public-private partnership resulting in the most comprehensive restoration of the Washington Monument, as well as managed development of the National World War II Memorial. She managed 6 major development projects within the National Mall to address issues ranging from security to public transportation. Her leadership in developing a long range vision for management and use of the National Mall established the foundation for a nationally significant public-private partnership. Ms. Keys is well known for her leadership in public engagement within the complex decision-making environment of the Nation’s Capital. Ms. Keys and her husband live in Culpeper, Virginia.

Board of Directors- Biographies

F. Haydn Williams, the Founding Chairman of Friends of the National World War II Memorial, Inc., received his AB degree from the University of California Berkeley and served in the U.S. Navy in the Pacific Theater during World War II. After the war, he studied at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy for his MA and PhD. He served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for International and National Security Council Affairs during the Eisenhower and Kennedy Administrations. In 1964 he was elected President of the Asia Foundation in San Francisco, retiring as President Emeritus in 1989. In the 1970’s he was the U.S. Ambassador for the Micronesian-Marianas Future Political Status Negotiations. He was appointed by the President to the American Battle Monuments Commission in 1994 and was named Chairman of the Commission’s World War II Memorial Committee responsible for locating the site, conducting an open design competition and winning final approval of the design for the World War II Memorial on the National Mall in September 2000.

Born in Gainesville, GA, Frank B. Moore served as Assistant to the President of the United States; his chief responsibility was the Administration’s relations with Congress. Mr. Moore reported directly to the President and also worked on international matters such as the Panama Canal Treaty. Prior to his position in the White House, Mr. Moore served as Assistant and later as Chief of Staff, to the Governor of Georgia, Jimmy Carter. Mr. Moore was formerly Senior Vice President for Government Affairs and Public Policy for Waste Management, Inc. Mr. Moore served on the Site and Design Committee for the World War II Memorial on the National Mall for five years and is a founding Director of the Friends of the National World War II Memorial, Inc. Mr. Moore is currently the Senior Vice President for Coda Octopus Group, Inc.
Mr. Moore earned his BBA from the University of Georgia and completed the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School.

Robert A. Peck is a Senior Vice President of The Staubach Company. He has more than 30 years of experience in public and private sector positions in the Washington DC Metropolitan area, including 20 years in real estate. Bob has executive oversight of Staubach’s National Broker Contract for the U.S. General Services Administration and he provides strategic portfolio and development advisory services to corporations, governments and nonprofit institutions.
Prior to joining Staubach, Bob was full-time president of the Greater Washington Board of Trade, the regional chamber of commerce. For five years, as Commissioner of GSA’s Public Buildings Service, he was in charge of nationwide asset management, design, construction, leasing, building management, security and disposals for 340 million square feet of government-owned and leased space accommodating one million federal workers.
Bob started his career at the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, was associate counsel to the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works and chief of staff to the late U.S. Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-NY). He was a Special Forces (Green Beret) officer in the U.S. Army Reserve.
In the private sector, Bob has been a land use and real estate lawyer, a real estate investment executive and vice president for government and public affairs at the American Institute of Architects.
He received his B.A. cum laude with distinction in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania, his J.D. from Yale Law School and was a visiting Loeb Fellow at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design. He has lectured widely and written on land use, regional growth, transportation, urban design and historic preservation.
He has served on corporate and non-profit boards, is a former president of the DC Preservation League, served on the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts and the Federal Advisory Council on Historic Preservation and was one of the initial mayoral appointees to the reorganized D.C. Board of Education. He lives in Chevy Chase, DC with his wife, Lynn Palmer, and their two children, who attend DC public schools.

James M. Cunningham joined Burson-Marsteller as Managing Director in June of 2000 after serving for 25 years at a senior level in corporations and government as well as business associations. He has served as a senior counselor to CEOs on a broad range of issues, including environmental issues, taxes, siting energy infrastructure and big box retail, crisis management, and numerous other controversial topics. He has worked directly with top elected officials at the federal and state levels in managing public policy issues. In addition, he has advised some of the nation’s top religious leaders on challenges they encountered in the public arena. He also has served in leadership positions for national and state associations.
Mr. Cunningham currently leads Burson-Marsteller’s utility practice as well as the New York public affairs team. Before joining the firm, he was President of the Pennsylvania Electric Association, representing Pennsylvania’s ten investor-owned electric utilities on public policy issues, the most prominent of which was the implementation of the nation’s most active utility industry restructuring program. Before joining the electric association, Mr. Cunningham was responsible for overseeing public affairs and corporate communications for the Long Island Lighting Company.
Prior to that, he was Senior Vice President Public Affairs for the New York Power Authority, the nation’s largest non-federal public power organization. He was responsible for Power Authority activities in the areas of news media relations, advertising, corporate communication services, government relations, community relations and public policy. In addition, as a senior official in the New York State Department of Commerce in 1977, he helped to develop and launch the successful "I Love New York" campaign.
Mr. Cunningham is a member of the Board of Advisors of the New York Hall of Science. He also serves as a Trustee of the American Irish Historical Society and is a member of the Board of Directors of the Helen Keller Foundation. He is a founding member of the Courage Foundation, a national organization that recognizes public officials who exhibit extraordinary courage in the performance of their public duties. The foundation has merged with the Profiles in Courage Committee, a division of the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library, Boston.
Mr. Cunningham holds a degree in industrial relations from LaSalle College in Philadelphia.