Marvin H. McIntyre

Marvin H. McIntyre (right), with fellow guests, at luncheon on second anniversary of Lend-Lease

Marvin Hunter McIntyre (27 November 1878 - 13 December 1943) was an American journalist and Presidential Secretary to President Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR).

Biography

McIntyre was born in La Grange, Kentucky, 27 November 1878 and was educated at the Wall and Mooney Preparatory school in Franklin, Tennessee, and at Vanderbilt University.^[1]

Beginning his career in 1905 in journalism, he rose to city editor of The Washington Post. In 1909 he become the editor of the Washington Times. He left this post in 1917 to become Special Assistant to the Secretary of the Navy and to serve as a member of the Committee on Public Information under George Creel and as publicity director for United States Navy during the First World War until 1921. In this Navy connection McIntyre first met Roosevelt, then Assistant Secretary of the Navy.

He served as publicity representative and business manager for several of FDR's campaigns and after the Democratic defeat in 1920, he remained in Washington DC, contributing articles to Army and Navy Journals and later becoming representative of the Pathé News Reel Company. He stayed in the motion picture business until 1931 when the Roosevelt-for-President drive began to gather momentum and FDR, then Governor of New York, called McIntyre to join him in Albany to start plans for the campaign.

When the FDR was inaugurated on March 4, 1933, he appointed McIntyre to the Presidential Secretariat making him an assistant secretary in charge of appointments. In addition to these duties McIntyre served as traveling secretary. On 1 July 1937, he became the President's Appointments Secretary^[2][3] until illness prevented him from carrying out his duties in 1938.^[4] He returned to the White House in 1941 assuming duties as the President's Correspondence Secretary where he remained until his death on 13 December 1943, in Washington, D.C.. He was succeeded by William D. Hassett.

He was a Colonel in the Kentucky Guard.^[5]

Namesake

The World War II Haskell-class attack transport USS Marvin H. McIntyre (APA-129) was named in his honor.

References

This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.

1. Marvin Hunter McIntyre Obituary. 1943, The Shelby Sentinel, 1943-12-17, retrieved 2009-05-09
2. Plague, Dunces, Du Ponts, Time (magazine), 1937-07-12, retrieved 2009-05-09
3. Hassett, William D. (1958), Off The Record With F D R 1942-1945, Rutgers University Press, p. xiii, retrieved 2009-05-09
4. Hassett, William D. (1958), Off The Record With F D R 1942-1945, Rutgers University Press, p. 36, retrieved 2009-05-09
5. Roosevelt Secretariat, Time (magazine), 1932-12-12, retrieved 2009-05-09