Named to Advisory Boards, Commissions : Reagan Passing Out Plums to Top Aides

As his second term draws to an end, President Reagan is naming top-level staff aides to various boards and commissions.

White House personnel director Robert Tuttle was appointed today to the board of trustees of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in the Smithsonian Institution, bringing to four the number of such appointments in the last two days.

Reagan also named Mari Maseng, his communications director, to be a member of the National Council on Vocational Education.

On Thursday, Reagan named chief of staff Kenneth Duberstein to the board of trustees of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts for a term expiring Sept. 1, 1998. He also named special assistant John Tuck to the board of visitors of the U.S. Naval Academy for a term expiring at the end of 1991 and announced the appointment of Rhett Dawson, who has headed the White House administrative office, to the board of visitors of the U.S. Military Academy, for a term expiring Dec. 30, 1991.

White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said at a briefing today, “There are hundreds of organizations and groups that have been established by the President or by Congress or by some authority, to advise the government on a continuing basis. And it is true that the President is appointing a number of senior staff people and others to these commissions because they’ve done outstanding work and they’re outstanding people who have seen government close up.”

Members of such boards and commissions typically receive nominal salaries or fees and have travel and hotel accommodations paid when they attend meetings.