Harold E. Talbott
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Harold E. Talbott Jr. was born in Dayton, Ohio, in March 1888. He attended the Hill School in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, and spent two years at Yale University before returning to his father's construction company in 1911.
Talbott's father was a wealthy engineer who was involved in the construction of the Soo Locks on Lake Superior and had various railroad interests.[1] He was also involved in the recovery of Dayton from the 1913 flood.
His mother was active in the Dayton anti-suffrage league which opposed giving women the right to vote. She was also involved in the Anti-Saloon League and was a patron of the Dayton Westminster Choir.[2]
His brother Nelson "Bud" Talbott was the coach for the Dayton Triangles professional football team a predecessor to today's Indianapolis Colts.
His nephew Strobe Talbott was a deputy secretary of state in the Clinton administration.
Talbott's interest in aviation dated from the early days of the Wright brothers. In 1915 he helped build one of the first wind tunnels for aviation experiments in Dayton. In the spring of 1916, Talbott's father, Colonel Deeds, and Charles Kettering formed the Dayton-Wright Company, a reorganization of the Orville Wright Company. The young Talbott was made president and Orville Wright became vice president and engineer. At the beginning of World War I, the Dayton-Wright Company took over the newly built Delco-Light plant. The expanded plant turned out about 400 training planes and constructed the two-seat fighter, the DeHaviland–4, later modified to the DeHaviland–9. In 1918 the plant, which employed 12,000 people, produced 38 planes per day and manufactured more wartime aircraft overall than any other U.S. plant.
During September 1918, Talbott was commissioned a major in the Air Service of the Signal Corps. His assignment as one of a group of officers in charge of aircraft maintenance and repair in France was canceled by the armistice.
In 1919 General Motors acquired Delco-Light, Dayton-Wright, and the Dayton Metal Products Company.[3] All were businesses associated with Talbott, Deeds, and Kettering.
Talbott was an original investor in Chrysler Corporation in the 1920s and was a director of Chrysler by the early 1950s.[4]
In 1925 Talbott (Jr.) married Margaret Thayer (1898-1960) who was the daughter of Marian Longstreth Morris Thayer a survivor of the Titanic Disaster and John Thayer II a railroad executive who perished aboard the ship. Harold & Margaret's children included Margaret, Pauline, John Thayer Talbott, and H.E. Talbott III.[5]
During World War II, the Runnymede Playhouse on the Talbott family estate in a residential neighborhood of Oakwood, Montgomery County, Ohio (a suburb of Dayton) hosted the Dayton Project (the part of the Manhattan Project involved in creating the nuetron generating triggers for the first atomic bombs from radioactive polonium). Charles Allen Thomas a Delco-GM and Monsanto chemist who was in charge of the project was married to Harold's daughter Margaret.
Talbott was an active Republican presidential campaign fund-raiser in 1940, 1948 and 1952. He was chairman of the Republican national finance committee in 1948 and 1949. He also had been a member of the War Production Board during 1942 and 1943.
He became the third Secretary of the Air Force on February 4, 1953, during a period when the Korean War had jolted Congress into authorizing additional wings and their supporting infrastructure. Consequently, he was able to focus his efforts on the needs of airmen and their families. He succeeded in obtaining more military housing than had his predecessors. Combining better housing with pay increases and other needed improvements, he raised the service personnel retention rate by linking enhanced military benefits to reenlistment.
During his tenure, Talbott appointed a commission to assist him in selecting the permanent site for the Air Force Academy. After considering 580 proposed sites in 45 states, the commission recommended three locations. From those, he selected the site near Colorado Springs.
In 1955 Talbott suffered a serious professional disappointment when he became involved in a conflict of interest that eventually forced his resignation as secretary following a Congressional investigation of his business activities. He relinquished his position in August 1955.
It is possible that the Talbott Cluster in Cleveland native David Weber's science fiction writings is named for Harold E. Talbott Jr. Since David Weber's books, especially those set in the Honorverse, frequently criticize interference by politicians in military matters.
Talbott died of a cerebral hemorrhage in Palm Beach, Florida, on March 2, 1957.
In 1960 his wife (Margaret Thayer) committed suicide by jumping from the 12th story of their Fifth Avenue apartment in New York City.[6]
[edit] References
- Official USAF bio
- Encyclopedia Titanica discussion
- Time magazine article 23-Mar-1925
- Time magazine article 29-Dec-1952
| Preceded by Thomas K. Finletter |
United States Secretary of the Air Force 1953—1955 |
Succeeded by Donald A. Quarles |
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