Usher of the White House. As Chief Usher, Muir oversaw the operation of the White House and its staff. He had intimate daily contact with the President and First Family, oversaw all White House social affairs (formal and informal), and oversaw the reception and housing of heads of state, heads of government, diplomats, and other guests, important and not, at the White House. Muir left the White House in April 1938 to join the State Department. Howell G. Crim, Muir's longtime assistant chief usher, was named his replacement on April 4, 1938. State Department In spring 1938, George T. Summerlin, the Chief of Protocol at the State Department, asked Muir to become his assistant. Muir joined the State Department on April 16, 1938, as an assistant to Richard Southgate, chief of the International Conference Division. In July 1941, Muir was appointed the State Department's representative aboard the USS West Point. The ship carried 464 Nazi German and Italian Fascist diplomatic officials, agents, and their families to Lisbon, Portugal, where they were exchanged for American diplomatic personnel, civilians, and their families. In 1942, he again served as the State Department representative aboard the MS Gripsholm, a Swedish ocean liner chartered by the U.S. government which exchanged more than 1,500 Japanese diplomatic, commercial, and other personnel and their families for 1,300 Americans. Muir was named Acting Ceremonial Officer in the State Department's Division of Protocol on July 27, 1943, and was promoted permanently into the position on March 20, 1944. On December 1, 1946, Muir was appointed Chief Ceremonial Officer and Assistant Chief of the Division of Protocol. Muir was promoted to Deputy Chief of Protocol on April 29, 1951. In this position, Muir introduced new ambassadors and their credentials to the President of the United States, and handled any instance where someone with diplomatic immunity ran afoul of U.S. law. Death and burial Muir accompanied Paul I, King of Greece, during his trip across the United States in the fall of 1953. While crossing the Rocky Mountains at high altitude, Muir suffered from breathing problems, which were later diagnosed as lung cancer. Muir entered Georgetown University Hospital on November 26, 1953, and underwent surgery to remove the cancer. The surgery was not successful, and in March 1954 Muir returned to Georgetown and had a lung removed. Muir's health began to fail suddenly in mid-June 1954. He died of lung cancer at