FOIA Advisor

FOIA News: A death in the FOIA family

Allan BlutsteinComment

Marcia S. Daniel (1953-2018)

The Blade, Apr. 17, 2018

Marcia S. Daniel, who during a more than three-decade career at the FBI worked on the Oklahoma City bombing case and helped authors and screenwriters navigate the public records process, died March 17 at Heritage Village of Waterville. She was 64.

She had Alzheimer’s, with which she was diagnosed at 53 and prompted her departure from the FBI, her sisters said.

Ms. Daniel held many roles within the bureau — organizing and labeling evidence and artifacts, testifying in court about criminal cases, and even one time leading the interior design for a new FBI building, sister Karen Shelt said. She spent years as an information agent for the FBI’s Freedom of Information Act office, conducting research of public documents for journalists, authors, and others, sister Leanna Rearick said.

Gregg Herken in his book Brotherhood of the Bomb about scientists in the Manhattan Project thanks Ms. Daniel, saying she was “a ‘FOIA angel’ at the FBI and deserves all the awards the bureau can possibly give her.”

Late in her career at the FBI, she developed ways to streamline the FOIA process for authors, and received a commendation from then-U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno for her work, Ms. Shelt said.

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