Rubinoff Wins Travel Grant from Ford Foundation

Michael Rubinoff

By Wil McLean
Special to FYI Online

Michael Rubinoff, adjunct associate professor of history for UMUC, received a travel grant this year from the Gerald R. Ford Foundation to assist in completion of his historical study entitled, "The Ford-Reagan Relationships in the 1976 and 1980 Campaigns." The grants are given to help defray travel expenses and other costs incurred by academics conducting significant research at the Gerald Ford Presidential Library at the University of Michigan.

"I had been planning a major project on the 1980 presidential election for some time," said Rubinoff, who holds a PhD in history from the University of Denver, "so news from UMUC history chair Bud Burkhard about the availability of Ford Foundation grants was welcome tidings."

Rubinoff reviewed White House central files from administration officials, correspondence from congressional offices, newspaper articles, interview transcripts, memoranda from the President Ford Committee, and videotapes of the 1976 primary ads. It was, he said, "the quintessential '70s show."

"You see the wide, bright, multicolored ties and long sideburns; it was a different era," Rubinoff said. "[But] it's fascinating to see the interplay of figures such as Rumsfeld and Cheney, who were on the scene then and . . . are [still] critical players today. Ford's dealing with Ronald Reagan in the two campaigns is political theater at its best—the skillful rhetoric deployed by Reagan in '76 would surface again in '80."

The outfits might prompt a chuckle, but the actions are still momentous.

"From such happenings, the fate of nations can be determined," Rubinoff said.

Rubinoff is himself no stranger to Washington, D.C., or the political arena—he served with the Heritage Foundation, Center for Strategic and International Studies, from 1980 to 1996, and was appointed Deputy Assistant Secretary in the International Trade Administration of the U.S. Department of Commerce by the previous Bush administration—and hinted that he might not mind relocating a bit closer to the Beltway (he currently lives in Arizona).

"Teaching onsite for UMUC in Adelphi might be nice," Rubinoff said.

In the meantime, though, he is keeping busy outside of politics. He has been invited by Hofstra University to present a paper at a four-day conference in March 2003 on Broadway musicals in the 20th century. The paper will be entitled, "Sigmund, Romberg, and the Making of the Book Musical in the 1920's."