53: Doolittle Committee Bios (1954)

GENERAL JAMES H. DOOLITTLE

WILLIAM FRANKE  & WILLIAM DOUGLAS PAWLEY

    S. PAUL JOHNSTON

Subject was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 3 August 1899, the son of James Irvin Johnston and Bertha Wilson Johnston, nee Gill. He was married 28 December 1923 to Carol Bates Rhodes, from whom he was later divorced. They had two children, Mary Carol and James Irvin, I. A second marriage occurred on 29 December 1945 when he married Cathryn U. Herron, who died on 29 August 1948. On 9 September 1949, he married his present wife, the former Claudine Lutz. They have one daughter, Pierrette.

Since 1945 the Subject has functioned as Managing Director of the Institute of Aeronautical Sciences, with Headquarters at 2 East 64th, New York City and devoted his major time to this enterprise. He entered business in 1921 as an apprentice in the Operating Department of the Aluminum Company of America and within a year made a new connection with the Pittsburgh Office of the New Kensington Works. During the next seven years, he remained identified with this organization and eventually became a Chief Engineer.

In 1930, he turned to writing and from 1931to 1934, he was the Assistant Editor of the publication, Aviation. Promotion followed and after serving as an Associate Editor and Acting Editor, he was its Editor from 1936 to 1940. From January 1940to February 1942, he was Coordinator of Research with the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics. From February 1942 to 1943, he was Manager of the Curtiss-Wright Corporation in Washington, D.C.

During World War I, Subject served in the ROTC, From May to December 1918, he was in the Air Service of the U.S. Army. In 1944 he was a Captain in the W.S. Naval Air Transport Service in the Pacific. During 1945 and1946, he was attached to U.S. Strategic Bombing Service, ET and Japan and was awarded the Legion of Merit in1945.

The Subject served as Executive Director of the President's Air Policy Commission from August to December 1948 and also was a Consultant to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Lexington Project that same year.

In the years 1937, 1947 and1948 he was a member of the Committee on Awards for the Collier Trophy, He is an honorary member of the Maintenance and Engineering Committee of the Air Transport Association.

He was a student at the Carnegie Institute of Technology from 1917 to 1919 and received a B.S. Degree in mechanical engineering from MIT in 1921 following hie return to civilian life. He hae been a member of the Aero Engineering Advisory Council at Princeton University and a Fellow at the Institute of Aeronautical Science.

His clubs are the Coemor Club, Army-Navy Club, Wings (New York), City Island Club and Yacht Club. 

He has authored several books dealing with aviation and has written graphic histories of the U.S. Navy and Army Air Forces.