Raymond D. Muir
Cite this Page
"Raymond D. Muir," White House Workers History Project, White House Historical Association, 2026, https://whha.whirlihost.com/Detail/workers/791.
- Position
- Usher
- Years in President's House
- 1930 – 1938
- Legal Status
- Free Person
- Gender
- Male
- Race/Ethnicity
- White
- Biography
- Raymond Douglas Muir was born on June 5, 1898 in Somerville, Massachusetts.1 Muir enlisted in the U.S. Navy during World War I and remained in France after the war, working with the Graves Registration Service.2 There, he met a French woman named Pauline Guergan (sometimes Geugan), whom he married and brought to the United States.3 He earned his law degree from the Washington College of Law at American University and worked with the Veterans’ Bureau. In 1930, the Bureau assigned him to assist Chief Usher Ike Hoover at the White House and after Hoover’s death in 1933, Muir took over the role.4 Over the next five years, he presided over the White House staff and managed major events including State Visits and the White House Easter Egg Roll. In 1938, he left the White House for a new role as assistant chief of the division of international conferences at the State Department.5 In her “My Day” column, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt described a send-off party attended by White House staff and residents in the Red Room; there, his co-workers gifted him a wristwatch to recognize his service.6 He continued to work for the State Department over the next several decades, eventually becoming deputy chief of protocol. He died on June 23, 1954, and was buried at Arlington National Cemetery.7
- (“RAYMOND D. MUIR,” Arlington National Cemetery, https://ancexplorer.army.mil/publicwmv/index.html#.
- “Raymond D. Muir is Appointed Chief Usher at the White House,” Evening Star, September 19, 1933, pg. A-5, https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045462/1933-09-19/ed-1/seq-5/.
- Ibid; see also “1930 Federal Census,” Year: 1930; Census Place: Washington, District of Columbia; Page: 13A; Enumeration District: 0279; FHL microfilm: 2340034, National Archives and Records Administration.
- “Raymond D. Muir is Appointed Chief Usher at the White House,” Evening Star, September 19, 1933, pg. A-5, https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045462/1933-09-19/ed-1/seq-5/.
- “Muir Appointed Southgate’s Aide,” Evening Star, April 4, 1938, pg. A-2, https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045462/1938-04-04/ed-1/seq-2/.
- Eleanor Roosevelt, "My Day, May 14, 1938," The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Digital Edition (2017), accessed 1/7/2025, https://www2.gwu.edu/~erpapers/myday/displaydoc.cfm?_y=1938&_f=md054953.
- “Protocol Official, 57, Dies,” Kansas City Times, June 24, 1954, pg. 7; “RAYMOND D. MUIR,” Arlington National Cemetery, https://ancexplorer.army.mil/publicwmv/index.html#.
- Birthplace
- Somerville, Massachusetts, USA
- Arlington National Cemetery
- Related Workers
- Irwin H. HooverUshers, Stewards, and Doorkeepers, Trades, 1891 – 1933
- Howell G. CrimUshers, Stewards, and Doorkeepers, circa 1930 – 1957
- Frank W. KelseyUshers, Stewards, and Doorkeepers, 1933 – circa 1935