Robert Porter Patterson was the United States Secretary of War under United States President Harry S. Truman from the 27th of September 1945 to the 18th of July, 1947.
Biography
Patterson was born in Glens Falls, New York in 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 U.S. Army during world war one, reaching the rank of major, and received the Distinguished Service Cross for heroism in France.
He was appointed a district judge in the Southern district of New York in 1930, and to the court of appeals (second circuit) in 1939. He was appointed to the war department in 1940, serving in various capacities in the civilian leadership, and was appointed secretary by Truman in 1945. He advocated unifying the services (army and navy) and having a single chief of staff. This was begun by the National Security
Act of 1947, but was revised several times, finally by the Goldwater-Nichols Act of 1986.
Patterson returned to his law practice in 1947. He later served as the president of the Bar Association of the City of New York, and the president of the Council of Foreign Relations. He died on January 22, 1952 in a plane crash.
