Tiny Amherst College : Alumni include McCloy, Coolidge, Chas. Lindbergh's father-in-law and 3 DCI, all since GHW Bush

[Guest Tom Scully]

San Antonio Light - April 14, 1977, San Antonio, Texas

underground groups. He barely made it but before the ax fell. (Jake Cogswell still does projects 'for the CIA as...CIA as a Cuban expert. He was married to heiresses Joan Demers and Cynthia Cannon. Cynthia, big in the horse world,...

Refine by:

Date: Thursday, April 14, 1977

City: San Antonio

State: Texas

Syracuse Herald-Journal - April 13, 1977, Syracuse, New York

groups. He barely made it out be- fore the ax fell. (Jake Cogs- well still does projects for the CIA...CIA as a Cuban expert. Jle was married to heiresses Joan Demers and Cynthia Cannon. Cynthia, big in the horse world,...

James Kelsey Cogswell III graduated from Amherst College, so did John McCloy, and when McCloy served as Amherst head trustee, he appointed George Plimpton's uncle, Dr. Calvin H. Plimpton as Amherst president in 1960.:

http://www.jfklibrary.org/Research/Ready-Reference/JFK-Speeches/Remarks-at-Amherst-College-October-26-1963.aspx

Remarks at Amherst College, October 26, 1963 - John F. Kennedy ...

President John F. Kennedy Amherst, Massachusetts October 26, 1963. Mr. McCloy, President Plimpton, Mr. MacLeish, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen: .

Despite it's tiny enrollment, or....maybe because of it, in addition to Cogswell, three Amherst alumni have spent time at CIA since 1977, all three serving as DCI.

I'll start a new thread to take a closer look at Amherst. The Lindsay twins, John and David, were ushers in Nancy Bush's 1946 wedding party. Their brother George became lead partner at Debevoise and Plimpton. Eli Whitney Debevoise served as HICOG McCloy's counsel and then his deputy, and McCloy appointed Francis Plimpton's brother as Amherst's president. Stansfield Turner attended Amherst for five semesters and then transferred to the US Naval Academy. Turner "relieved" GHW Bush as DCI in 1977, after Ted Sorenson was nominated for DCI by newly elected President Jimmy Carter, and then Sorenson meekly withdrew after his nomination was shouted down by Carter's own right wing sympathizing democrats in the U.S. Senate.

http://www3.amherst.edu/magazine/issues/06spring/officer/index.html

An Officer and a Gentleman

By Dick Hubert ’60 and Rob Longsworth II ’99

Most Amherst alumni are able to pluck from memory a moment in their student career that designates a milestone in their life. For Admiral Stansfield Turner ’45, that moment would be the morning of Sunday, Dec. 7, 1941, near the end of his first semester at the college. Walking across the quadrangle bordered by Pratt and Morrow dormitories, he heard someone call from a window above, “The Japs have attacked us at Pearl Harbor!”

Turner admits that at the time he was among the many Amherst students who didn’t know where or what Pearl Harbor was, let alone the importance of the bombing. This is no small confession from a man who later was to become the highest ranking military officer in Amherst’s history, as well as Admiral of the Navy, president of the Naval War College and one of three Amherst alumni (the other two are William Webster ’45 and John Deutch ’60) to serve as director of the CIA.

Turner

Turner at Amherst in the early 1940s

Though Turner left Amherst after only five semesters to attend the Naval Academy, Amherst was to never leave him. Turner says his Amherst education was life changing, and praises its intellectual fervor and sense of opportunity. By comparison, he found Annapolis’ inescapable electrical engineering coursework to be didactic and deflating. He consequently longed to immerse himself again in an intellectual richness reminiscent of Amherst’s. In his third and final year at the Naval Academy, a visiting lecturer, Harvard professor William Y. Elliott, was introduced as a Rhodes Scholar. Midshipman Turner was so captivated by the professor’s “approach, his reasoning, his presentation” that after the lecture the young officer declared to his roommate that he, too, would one day be a Rhodes Scholar. He achieved this goal and studied at Exeter from 1947 to 1950.

Now retired, Admiral Turner has strong views on subjects ranging from the United States’ military commitments throughout the world to the challenges our intelligence agencies face in helping to form their policies. He is also keenly interested in the educational and social duties of elite schools such as Amherst.....

http://www.nndb.com/edu/563/000068359/

Amherst College

Coeducational in 1974.

Enrollment:

1617

John Deutch

Government

27-Jul-1938 CIA Director, 1995-96

Stansfield Turner

Government

1-Dec-1923 CIA Director, 1977-81

William Webster

Government

6-Mar-1924 FBI Director 1978-87, CIA Director 1987-91

Calvin Coolidge

Head of State

4-Jul-1872 5-Jan-1933 30th US President, 1923-29

Lewis W. Douglas

Politician

2-Jul-1894 7-Mar-1974 US Ambassador to the UK, 1947-50

Dwight Morrow

Politician

11-Jan-1873 5-Oct-1931 US Ambassador to Mexico, 1927-30

Morrow was the father of Anne Morrow Lindbergh. John McCloy is not included in the list at the above link, but his brother-in-law, Lewis W. Douglas, is.

What should we make of this, since Amherst attendees seem to have had somewhat of a lock on the DCI job since 1977, and Stansfield Turner suddenly emerged as DCI GHW Bush's replacement, and served in the position during Jimmy Carter's entire term. John McCloy was very much alive, at that time!

I was unaware that JFK spoke at Amherst less than a month before he was murdered in Dallas.

[Michael Griffin]

Tom,

Amherst College has a nice section of their website devoted to JFK's 10-26-63 visit.

https://www.amherst.edu/library/archives/exhibitions/kennedy

Mike