Raymond Douglas Muir (June 5, 1897 – June 23, 1954) was an American civil servant who served as Chief Usher in the White House from 1933 to 1938, and Deputy Chief of Protocol for the United States Department of State from 1951 until his death in 1954. Early life Raymond Douglas Muir was born on June 5, 1897, in Somerville, Massachusetts. He attended the public schools in Boston, Massachusetts. After graduating from high school, he spent three or four years traveling and working in Nova Scotia, Canada. When the United States entered World War I, Muir was one of the earliest enlistees. He was just 17 years old. From April 1917 to January 1919, he served in the United States Navy. After the end of hostilities, he joined the Graves Registration Service as a civilian, helping to locate the bodies of U.S. servicemen and either record their burial place or have the remains moved to a U.S. military cemetery. In 1920, Muir left the Navy and joined the United States Army, where he served as a port officer in France until 1922. While in France, Muir met and married a local French girl, Pauline Geugan. They had a single child, Collete Dona Muir, born in 1942. Muir returned to the United States in 1922, and joined the Veterans' Bureau (the forerunner to the United States Department of Veterans Affairs) as a liaison officer. He joined the United States Army Reserve, where he rose to the rank of captain. White House Muir left the Veterans' Bureau in 1930 and joined the staff of the White House as an assistant chief usher under the supervision of Chief Usher Irwin "Ike" H. Hoover. His appointment came about after the White House asked for someone with military experience to work as an assistant to Hoover. Muir enrolled at the Washington College of Law (the law school of American University in Washington, D.C.) in 1930, and graduated with a JD degree in the summer of 1933. On the platform with him was First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, who received an honorary degree from the law school that year. Ike Hoover died suddenly at his home in Washington, D.C., of a heart attack on the evening of September 14, 1933. His death was reported on the front page of the next day's The Washington Post. On September 18, President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed Muir to be Chief