Harmon, Hubert Reilly, 1892-1957

Hubert Reilly Harmon was born in 1892 and graduated from West Point in 1915 where he was a classmate of Dwight D. Eisenhower. After several different assignments, Harmon transferred to the Air Corps in 1920. During World War II he commanded the 6th Air Force in Panama and later the 13th Air Force, commanding allied air units during the Solomon Islands campaign. From 1947 to 1953, General Harmon served as the Air Force Representative, United Nations Military Staff and Special Assistant to the Chief of Staff, United States Air Force. He retired in June of 1953, but was recalled to active duty in November of that same year and appointed Special Assistant to Chief of Staff for Air Force Academy Matters. With the establishment of the Air Force Academy in 1954, General Harmon became its first Superintendent. He left the Academy in 1956 when he became ill with cancer. He died in 1957 and his ashes were interred, as he had requested, in the Air Force Academy cemetery upon its completion in 1958. In 1959, the Academy's new administration building was named Harmon Hall in his memory and, with the commemoration of the Academy's 50th Anniversary, General Harmon was designated as "The Father of the Air Force Academy."