Wilber Marion Brucker

WILBER MARION BRUCKER was born in Saginaw, Michigan, on 23 June 1894; graduated from the University of Michigan, 1916; enlisted in the Michigan National Guard and served with its 33d Infantry Regiment on the Mexican Border, 1916–1917; attended the First Officers’ Training Camp, Fort Sheridan, Illinois, and was commissioned a second lieutenant of Infantry; served in France with the 166th Infantry, 42d Division, in the Chateau Thierry, St. Mihiel, and Meuse-Argonne operations, 1917–1918; was assistant prosecuting attorney of Saginaw County, Michigan, 1919–1923, and prosecuting attorney, 1923–1927; married Clara Hantel, 1923; was assistant attorney general of Michigan, 1927–1928, and attorney general, 1928–1930; was governor of Michigan, 1930–1932; was a captain in the Officer Reserve Corps, 1922–1937; was a member of the law firm of Clark, Klein, Brucker, and Waples, 1937–1954; served as general counsel of the Department of Defense, 1954–1955; served as Secretary of the Army, 21 July 1955–19 January 1961; administered the Army during a period of major technological advance, especially in the missile-satellite field, and at a time when the Army’s place in the national defense structure was overshadowed by a "massive retaliation" philosophy; under his direction the Army instituted a five-element (pentagonal) organization concept for the division, established a Strategic Army Corps for emergency reaction, and launched the Free World’s first satellite; returned to legal practice in Detroit in the firm of Brucker and Brucker, 1961–1968; was a member of the Board of Directors of Freedoms Foundation; died at Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan, on 28 December 1968.


The Artist

Charles J. Fox is the pseudonym of Leo Fox, a New York City entrepreneur who for many years commissioned portraits of leading figures in government, business, society, and the professions. The portraits, signed C. J. Fox, were executed by New York artist Irving Resnikoff (born 1897) during a forty-year association with Fox. The Army gallery contains three C. J. Fox portraits—those of Secretaries Brucker, Stahr, and Ailes.

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Portrait, Wilber Marion Brucker

WILBER MARION BRUCKER
Eisenhower Administration
By Irving Resnikoff, signed C.J. Fox
Oil on canvas, 44˝" x 31˝", ca. 1961


page created 12 March 2001


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