Pennington, Lee Roberts, 1894-1974

Lee Roberts Pennington, Jr., was born November 19, 1894, in Martinsburg, West Virginia. He later moved to Havre de Grace with his family. He attended the Maryland State Agricultural College, where he was known as "Duck" by the other students, as a cadet from 1911-1915, earning a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering. While at MAC, he witnessed the major campus fire of 1912, participating in firefighting efforts and later documenting the damage.

He joined the U.S. Army in 1917 and served in the First World War, rising to the rank of lieutenant; he took part in the fighting at the Argonne, earning a Silver Star and a Purple Heart.

After the war, he studied accounting at Southeastern University in Washington, D.C. He joined the FBI as an accountant, then an inspector, and eventually worked his way up to be head of the Washington Field Office before his retirement in 1953.

Pennington was an active advocate of Americanism and anti-communism. He was a longtime member of the American Legion, where he served as assistant director and director of the Legion's Counter-Subversive Section, National Americanism Commission from 1953-1959. Previously, he was department commander of the D.C. American Legion from 1944-1945. He also served as an advisor to the American Security Council. (

From the description of Lee Roberts Pennington papers, 1918-1974. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 123419689

) He was a member of the Susquehanna [Masonic] Lodge, Veterans of Foreign Wars, and Diasabled Veterans of America, among other societies.

Toward the end of his life, Pennington as employed as a CIA contractor. He gained modest notoriety for his connection to the Watergate scandal: as he later testified, he visited the home of his friend James W. McCord Jr., following McCord's arrest for breaking into DNC headquarters at the Watergate Hotel, and encountered McCord's wife burning some documents. Pennington died of a heart attack on September 19, 1974.