Robert P. Patterson

Infobox US Cabinet official
name = Robert Porter Patterson, Sr.


order = 55th
title = United States Secretary of War
term_start = September 27, 1945
term_end = July 18, 1947
president = Harry S. Truman
predecessor = Henry L. Stimson
successor = Kenneth Claiborne Royall
birth_date = February 12, 1891
birth_place = Glens Falls, New York
death_date = Death date and age|1952|1|22|1891|2|12|
death_place =
party =
spouse =
profession =

Robert Porter Patterson (Sr.) (February 12, 1891 - January 22, 1952) was the United States Under Secretary of War under President Franklin Roosevelt and the United States Secretary of War under President Harry S. Truman from September 27, 1945 to July 18, 1947.

Biography

Patterson was born in Glens Falls, New York on February 12, 1891. He graduated from both Union College and Harvard Law School. He practiced law in New York City. He served in the United States Army during World War I, reaching the rank of major, and received the Distinguished Service Cross for heroism in France.

In 1930, President Herbert Hoover appointed Patterson as a judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. In 1939, President Franklin D. Roosevelt promoted Patterson to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, where he sat with judges including Learned Hand, Augustus Hand, and Thomas Swan.

In 1940, after 15 months of service on the Second Circuit, Patterson left the bench to join the War Department. After a few months as Assistant Secretary of War, President Roosevelt promoted Patterson to Undersecretary of War late in 1940. President Harry S. Truman appointed Patterson as Secretary of War in 1945. Patterson advocated unifying the armed services (army and navy) and having a single chief of staff. Steps to this effect were begun by the National Security Act of 1947, but was revised several times, finally by the Goldwater-Nichols Act of 1986. Patterson participated in the desegregation of the armed forces, specifically during late stages of the second world war with regard to creating an African-American negro fighter wing being trained in Tuskeegee.

Patterson returned to his law practice in 1947. Truman reportedly offered to reappoint Patterson to his former judgeship on the Second Circuit, but Patterson declined, opting to return to private practice.

Patterson later served as the president of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, and the president of the Council of Foreign Relations. He died on January 22, 1952, en route to meeting a client, onboard American Airlines Flight 6780 which crashed while landing at Newark. Patterson's son, Robert P. Patterson, Jr., is himself a federal judge in the Southern District of New York.

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