Background
Born in New York City, he was the son of Helen Lansdowne Resor and Stanley B. Resor (pronounced REE-zor), president of the J. W. Thompson advertising agency and one of the originators of the modern advertising industry.
United States Secretary of the Army
Born in New York City, he was the son of Helen Lansdowne Resor and Stanley B. Resor (pronounced REE-zor), president of the J. W. Thompson advertising agency and one of the originators of the modern advertising industry.
The elder Resor graduated from Yale University in 1901, and his son followed him there after attending the Groton School, and graduated from Yale in 1939, where he was tapped to join Scroll and Key.
While still a teenager he changed his name from Stanley Burnet Resor Junior. to Stanley Rogers Resor. After the war he went to work on Wall Street, and was made partner in the prominent Debevoise & Plimpton law firm. In 1965 during the Vietnam War, President Lyndon Johnson appointed him Secretary of the Army and he remained in the position under President Richard Nixon until 1971.
In 1984, he was awarded the United States Military Academy"s Sylvanus Thayer Award.
During the 1970s he served as United States ambassador to the MBFR (mutual and balanced force reduction) talks in Vienna, held between North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the Warsaw Pact. He returned to Debevoise & Plimpton after he left government service and retired in 1991.
Resor married Jane Pillsbury of the Pillsbury family in 1942 in a ceremony attended by John F. Kennedy and Cyrus Vance. They had seven sons. Throughout his life he was a strong supporter of education and the rule of law, particularly for protecting the rights of women, children, and minorities, preventing international conflict, and protecting the environment.
He went on to Yale Law School where he was a contemporary of Sargent Shriver (also a member of Scroll and Key), Gerald Ford, and Cyrus Vance (who preceded him as Secretary of the Army and himself was a member of Scroll and Key and in the same year at Yale). Over time he grew critical of United States. policy regarding nuclear weapons, and was a member of and spokesperson for the Arms Control Association of America in 1997 when it protested North Atlantic Treaty Organization expansion into Eastern Europe based on concerns about the reaction of the Russian government to perceived encroachment by North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
Married Jane Lawler Pillsbury, April 4, 1942 (deceased). Children: Stanley R., Charles P., John L., Edmund L., William B., James P., Thomas S. Married Louise Mead Walker, May 1, 1999.
