Restrictions to Access

No restrictions. Open for research.

Copyright Notice

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], in the "Recollections, Records, and Reminiscences of Robert L. Tuck" #5302-z, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Received from Robert L. Tuck in October 2006 (Acc. 100545).

Sensitive Materials Statement

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. § 132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no responsibility.

Processed by: Devon Lee, May 2007

Encoded by: Devon Lee, May 2007

The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.

Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.

• Averell Harriman Institute for Advanced Studies of the Soviet Union--History.
• Cold War--History.
• Colorado--Social life and customs.
• Columbia University--Students--History--20th century.
• Families--Colorado
• Families--Illinois
• Illinois--Social life and customs.
• International broadcasting.
• Munich (Germany)--History.
• North Central College (Naperville, Ill.)--Students--History--20th century.
• Radio Free Europe.
• Radio Liberty.
• Radio in propaganda--History--20th century.
• Soviet Union--Foreign relations.
• Soviet Union--History--Attempted coup, 1991.
• Soviet Union--Politics and government.
• Tuck, Robert L., 1922-
• United States. Central Intelligence Agency--Officials and employees.

Robert L. Tuck, son of Leslie Tuck and Helen Marr Tuck, was born in Portland, Maine, on 17 May 1922. He spent his early childhood in Colorado where his father served as a minister. Following Helen Marr Tuck's death in 1927, Tuck's father moved his family to Illinois where he married Ethelyn Gladys Honeywell.

Tuck attended North Central College in Illinois, from which he received his Bachelor's degree, before beginning active duty in the United States Army on 23 February 1943. During World War II, Tuck was stationed at various camps throughout the United States. In 1943, while stationed in Rochester. N.Y., Tuck met Evelyn McNutt, whom he married on 11 May 1945.

Following the war, Tuck, used his G.I. Bill benefits to enroll at Columbia University, where he received a Master's degree in history and a certificate from the Russian Institute.

In 1949, Tuck moved his family to Washington, D.C., where he began work with the Central Intelligence Agency. In 1953, he moved to Regensburg, Germany, to study Russian with the Army's advanced training program, known as Detachment 'R'. Upon his return in 1956, he resumed his responsibilities at the CIA working for various directorates. In August 1961, he moved to Radio Liberty (formerly Radio Liberation) in Munich, Germany, as policy advisor. He and his family remained there for eleven years, returning to New York in 1972, where Tuck assisted with Radio Liberty's domestic programming. Tuck returned to Munich as deputy director of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in 1976 and retired to Chapel Hill, N.C., in 1981. Robert L. Tuck died in 2009.

The recollections of Robert L. Tuck (2006, 88 pages) include information on Tuck's family history and his childhood and early adolescent years, higher education, and work with the Central Intelligence Agency and Radio Liberty. In the recollections, Tuck recounted life in various towns in Colorado and Illinois during his youth; provided information on the social life and customs of college students at North Central College in Illinois and Columbia University in New York; detailed the history of the Russian Institute (now the Averell Harriman Institute for Advanced Studies of the Soviet Union) at Columbia University; and described Shanks Village, N.Y., an early housing community, supported by Columbia University and developed for married students. Tuck briefly discussed the different directorates within the Central Intelligence Agency for which he worked and his experience in Regensburg, Germany, with Detachment 'R'. His Radio Liberty recollections document attempts to overcome Soviet "jamming," the 1981 bombing of the Radio Free Europe station, and the 1991 coup in Moscow. Scanned images of Tuck and his friends and family are also included.