One man closely identified with the Senate's transformation from patronage to professional staff was Darrell St. Claire, who served the Senate for almost forty years until his retirement on April 1, 1977. As an aide to Arizona's long-time Senator Carl Hayden, St. Claire became secretary to the Democratic Patronage Committee, which dispensed staff positions to majority party members during the New Deal years. Later, as chief clerk and assistant secretary of the Senate, he became a leader in the movement to install a professional staff, and took on the responsibilities of personnel management in the Office of the Secretary. Seated at his desk beyond the swinging doors of the secretary's office, just off the Senate floor, Darrell St. Claire was well known to senators and Senate staffers alike. From that vantage he observed and dealt with some of the Senate's most influential and colorful figures, whom he describes in detail in these interviews, along with his own role in the modernization of the U.S. Senate.