Originally, the duties now performed by the chief of staff belonged to the president's
private secretary and were fulfilled by crucial confidantes and policy advisers such as
George B. Cortelyou,
Joseph Tumulty, and
Louis McHenry Howe to presidents
Theodore Roosevelt,
Woodrow Wilson, and
Franklin D. Roosevelt, respectively. The private secretary served as the president's
de facto chief aide, in a role that combined personal and professional assignments of highly delicate and demanding natures, requiring great skill and utmost discretion. The job of gatekeeper and overseeing the president's schedule was separately delegated to the appointments secretary, as with aide
Edwin "Pa" Watson. From 1933 to 1939, as he greatly expanded the scope of the federal government's policies and powers in response to the
Great Depression, President
Franklin D. Roosevelt relied on his '
Brain Trust' of top advisers. Although working directly for the president, they were often appointed to vacant positions in federal agencies and departments, whence they drew their salaries since the
White House lacked statutory or budgetary authority to create staff positions. It was not until 1939, during Roosevelt's second term in office, that the foundations of the modern
White House staff were created using a formal structure. Roosevelt was able to persuade Congress to approve the creation of the
Executive Office of the President, which would report directly to the president. During
World War II, Roosevelt created the position of "Chief of Staff to the Commander-in-Chief" for his principal military adviser, Fleet Admiral
William D. Leahy. In 1946, in response to the rapid growth of the U.S. government's
executive branch, the position of "Assistant to the President of the United States" was established. Charged with the affairs of the White House, it was the immediate predecessor to the modern chief of staff. It was in 1953, under
Republican President
Dwight D. Eisenhower, that the president's preeminent assistant was designated the "White House chief of staff". Assistant to the president became a rank generally shared by the chief of staff along with the other most senior presidential aides such as the
White House counsel, the
White House press secretary, and others. This new system did not catch on immediately however. Presidents
Kennedy and
Johnson still relied on their appointments secretaries instead, and it was not until the
Nixon administration that the chief of staff took over maintenance of the president's schedule. This concentration of power in the
Nixon and
Ford White House (whose last chief of staff was
Dick Cheney) led presidential candidate
Jimmy Carter to campaign in 1976 with the promise that he would not appoint a chief of staff. And indeed, for the first two and a half years of his presidency, he appointed no one to the post.
Average tenure in office The average tenure for a White House chief of staff is just over 18 months. The inaugural chief of staff,
John R. Steelman, under
Harry S. Truman, was the president's only chief of staff;
Kenneth O'Donnell alone served in the position during
John F. Kennedy's unfinished term of 34 months in office.
Andrew Card and
Denis McDonough each served at least one entire presidential term of office under presidents
George W. Bush and
Barack Obama, respectively. ==Role==