Curtis Dwight Wilbur

Background

Curtis Dwight Wilbur was born on May 10, 1867 in Boonesboro (now Boone), Iowa, the son of Dwight Locke Wilbur, a lawyer, and Edna Maria Lyman, a schoolteacher.

Education

He attended public school in Boonesboro and then in Jamestown, in the Dakota Territory, to which his family moved in 1883 when his father became general land agent for the Northern Pacific Railroad. Appointed to the United States Naval Academy the following year, Wilbur did well in his studies and in sports, where his height (he was six feet, three inches tall) proved an asset. He graduated third in his class in 1888 but immediately resigned from the navy - an accepted practice at the time, since the number of graduates usually exceeded the number of available officer positions. Wilbur moved to Riverside, Calif. , where his parents then lived, and taught school for two years while studying law at night.

Career

He was admitted to the California bar in 1890 and began practicing law in Los Angeles. While pursuing a successful legal career, Wilbur was also active in civic affairs and Republican politics. He was appointed chief deputy district attorney of Los Angeles County in 1899, in which post he took a strong interest in laws and practices concerning juveniles. He was elected judge of the county superior court in 1902. The following April the juvenile court work was assigned to his department and in 1903 a separate juvenile court was established. This court was his greatest achievement. Wilbur was reelected in 1908 and 1914. During this period, he was also instrumental in the establishment of California's adult probation program. In 1918, he was chosen to fill an unexpired term as associate justice of the California Supreme Court. He was elected to that post in his own right later in the year and became chief justice in 1922. Two years later he resigned to become secretary of the navy under President Calvin Coolidge. The Teapot Dome and Elk Hills oil-reserve scandals and the consequent resignation of Secretary of the Navy Edwin Denby had provided the first opening in the cabinet that Coolidge had inherited from President Warren G. Harding. Determined to avoid any hint of impropriety in his initial appointment and to choose someone who could increase Republican strength in the upcoming national elections, Coolidge made a wide search for an appropriate candidate. His first choice was United States District Judge William S. Kenyon, a former senator. When he declined, Coolidge turned to Wilbur, who had been suggested by California Congressman John D. Fredericks. Wilbur took office on March 19, 1924. Wilbur's administration was marked by his energetic efforts to strengthen and modernize the navy, his emphasis on the importance of naval aviation, and his outspoken public warnings against what he saw as the dangers posed by Japan, international communism, and pacifism. His attempts to bring the navy up to the levels permitted by the 1922 Washington Treaty, and to develop within these limits the fastest, most powerful, and most efficient warships, were strongly opposed by an economyminded Congress sensitive to popular pressures for disarmament. Wilbur nevertheless did what he could to upgrade the fleet. Time and again he urged his views on Congress and the nation, while taking steps within the navy to further the role of aviation and the careers of those officers who supported it. He introduced a course in aviation at the Naval Academy, pressed for the development and adoption of improved equipment for the naval air service, and expanded the training of naval aviators. Outspoken in his opposition to the establishment of a separate air force, he argued that airpower was an auxiliary rather than a basic component of military power and that its role in support of naval operations was very different from that in supporting ground warfare. Both the navy and the army, he asserted, should have subordinate air services. When Coolidge left office in 1929, Wilbur went with him, despite press speculation that he might retain his post in the Hoover cabinet. Instead, Hoover appointed him to the Ninth Federal Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. He became presiding judge of the court in 1931 and served until his retirement in 1945. He was a strong opponent of New Deal legislation and, during World War II, an active public spokesman for the navy. He died in Palo Alto, Calif.

Achievements

• Wilbur's greatest contribution was perhaps his early recognition of the vital role of airpower in naval strategy and in his staunch advocacy of an effective naval air service. The guided missile destroyer USS Curtis Wilbur (DDG-54) is named for him.

Personality

Quotes from others about the person

• The New York Times, in an editorial following his death, praised his "unimpeachable integrity, " and described him as "the sort of public man that others could disagree with and respect, or agree with and be happy. "

Connections

On November 9, 1893, he married Ella T. Chilson, who died three years later. On January 13, 1898, he married Olive Doolittle; they had four children.

Father:

Dwight Locke Wilbur

A lawyer

Mother:

Edna Maria Lyman

A schoolteacher

Spouse:

Ella T. Chilson

Spouse:

Olive Doolittle