James M. Gavin

Date of birth : 03/22/1907

Date of death : 02/23/1990

City of birth : Brooklyn, New York, USA

James M. Gavin, grew up in Mount Carmel, Pennsylvania, and ran away from home in his early teen years, never to return. He was commissioned into the Infantry after graduating from the US Military Academy in 1929. Promoted Brigadier General in 1943, he was one of the youngest generals in US Army history since George Armstrong Custer during the American Civil War. Serving in a variety of command and administrative posts after World War II, he become a strong opponent of nuclear war and thus the Eisenhower administration. His policies and concerns resulted in early retirement in 1957 as a lieutenant general. He took a position as Chairman and CEO with the consulting firm Arthur D. Little and Company, where he remained for 20 years, retiring in 1977. President John F. Kennedy selected him to be United States Ambassador to France in 1961, a post he served in until 1963, while officially on leave from Little. His autobiography, On To Berlin, was published in 1979. He died of Parkinson's disease in 1990.