Howard C. Petersen

Howard Charles Petersen (1910–1995) was an American government official and banker. He was the United States Assistant Secretary of War from 1945 to 1947.

Education and early career

Petersen was born in East Chicago, Indiana. He graduated from DePauw University in 1930 and the University of Michigan Law School in 1933. From 1933 to 1941, Petersen was an associate in the New York law firm Cravath, deGersdorff, Swaine & Wood (the predecessor firm to Cravath, Swaine & Moore).

While at the Cravath firm, Petersen was introduced to Grenville Clark, through which connection he came to be a principal drafter of the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940. In 1944 Petersen served as Executive Assistant to the Undersecretary of War. In December 1945, Petersen was appointed the Assistant Secretary of War by President Harry S. Truman, a position he held until August 1947. He was the last person to hold that title, since the Department of War became part of the new Department of Defense in 1947.

He worked on the economic recovery of occupied Germany and the Western Allies and supervised U.S. military occupational activities in Germany, Japan, Korea, Austria, and Italy. One of his significant contributions was to help prevent famine in Europe by laying the groundwork for the Marshall Plan.

After World War II

Petersen joined Fidelity-Philadelphia Trust Company in 1947 as executive vice president and went on to serve as the bank's president (1950–66), CEO (1966–75) and chairman (1966–78).^[1]

Meanwhile, from 1961–63, Petersen served as Special Assistant to President John F. Kennedy for International Trade Policy, in which he managed Kennedy's controversial campaign for a new foreign trade policy. His main task was to assist with the passage of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, and he also negotiated the conclusion of the 1960-62 General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) negotiations with the European Economic Community.

Other activities

In addition, Petersen served as a Director of the Panama Canal Corporation, and a trustee of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Petersen was chairman of the boards of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, the University of Pennsylvania Museum, and the Marshall Foundation, and chairman and advisory committee member of Export-Import Bank.

Personal life

In 1936, Petersen married Elizabeth Anna Watts of Princeton, Indiana, with whom he had two children: Elizabeth Anna and Howard Jr.^[2] Elizabeth married then-Harvard instructor Herbert Spiro in June 1958.^[3]^[4]

Notes

↑ Pace, Eric (1996-01-01). "Howard Petersen, 85, Banker and Trade Adviser". The New York Times. Retrieved 2014-06-13.
↑ "Petersen, Howard C. (Howard Charles)". Princeton University Library. Retrieved 2014-06-13.
↑ "Petersen's Engagement Told In Pennsylvania". San Antonio Express. 1958-02-12. Retrieved 2014-06-09.
↑ "Educator Fiance of Miss Petersen; Herbert Spiro of Harvard to Marry Radcliffe Senior in June Ceremony". The New York Times. 1958-02-08. Retrieved 2014-06-09.

External links

U.S. Secretaries of War and the Army

U.S. Department
of War
(1789–1949)

Secretaries of War	B. Lincoln Knox Pickering McHenry Dexter Dearborn Eustis Armstrong Monroe W. Crawford Calhoun Barbour P. Porter Eaton Cass Poinsett Bell Spencer J. Porter Wilkins Marcy G. Crawford Conrad J. Davis Floyd Holt S. Cameron Stanton Schofield Rawlins Belknap A. Taft J. Cameron McCrary Ramsey R. Lincoln Endicott Proctor Elkins Lamont Alger Root W. Taft Wright Dickinson Stimson Garrison Baker Weeks D. Davis Good Hurley Dern Woodring Stimson Patterson Royall

Assistant Secretaries of War	Scott Watson Tucker Wolcott Dana Eckert Grant Doe Meiklejohn Sanger Oliver Breckinridge Ingraham Crowell Williams Wainwright D. Davis MacNider Hurley Payne Woodring L. Johnson Patterson McCloy Petersen

U.S. Department
of the Army
(1949–present)

Secretaries of the Army	Royall Gray Pace Stevens Brucker Stahr Vance Ailes Resor Froehlke Callaway Hoffmann C. Alexander Marsh Stone West Caldera White Harvey Geren McHugh Fanning

Under Secretaries of the Army	Draper Gray Voorhees A. Alexander Bendetsen E. Johnson Slezak Finucane Milton Ailes Ignatius Resor McGiffert Beal BeLieu Staudt Augustine LaBerge Ambrose Stone Shannon Reeder Walker Rostker Dahlberg Brownlee Geren Ford Westphal Carson Murphy

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