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James G. Harbord
Lieutenant-General James Guthrie Harbord (1866-1947) was a senior officer of the U.S. Army and President and Chairman of the Board of RCA.
Born in Bloomington, Illinois, and raised in Bushong, Kan...view moreLieutenant-General James Guthrie Harbord (1866-1947) was a senior officer of the U.S. Army and President and Chairman of the Board of RCA.
Born in Bloomington, Illinois, and raised in Bushong, Kansas and Manhattan, Kansas, Harbord graduated from Kansas State Agricultural College in 1886. He then worked as an instructor at the college for two years before enlisting in the U.S. Army in 1889. On July 31, 1891, he received a commission with the Fifth Cavalry. In 1901, he was promoted to captain and transferred from Cuba, where he served initially as quartermaster and commissary for the 10th Cavalry Regiment, and later as aide-de-camp and adjutant-general of the department of Santiago and Puerto Principe.
After serving briefly in the Secretary of War office, he transferred to duty in the Philippines with the 11th Cavalry Regiment. He then served as Assistant Chief of the Philippine Constabulary from 1903-1909 and again from 1910-1913. By late April 1914 he was commanding the unit defending the California border at Calexico. In 1916, he was on the Mexican border with Brigadier-General John J. Pershing, pursuing Pancho Villa.
When the U.S. entered WWI in April 1917, Harbord went to France as Pershing’s chief of staff, which won him a promotion to brigadier general. Throughout the war he continued to work closely with Pershing, now the commander of the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) on the Western Front. He commanded the U.S. Marines during the Battle of Château-Thierry and the Battle of Belleau Wood.
Following the war, he was promoted to major general and was awarded the Army Distinguished Service Medal. He retired from the Army in 1922 to become President of the Radio Corporation of America (RCA), where he retired as Chairman of the Board in 1947.
In 1942, under a new legislation, Harbord became eligible for promotion to lieutenant general and was advanced on the retired list.
Harbord died in Rye, New York in 1947, aged 81.view less