West, Togo D. (Togo Dennis), 1942-2018

Togo Dennis West Jr. (June 21, 1942 – March 8, 2018) was an American attorney and public official. A Democrat, he was the third person to occupy the post of Secretary of Veterans Affairs during the Bill Clinton administration serving from 1998 until his resignation in 2000. He was the second African American to be Secretary of Veterans Affairs.

Born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, he graduated from Atkins High School there before earning B.S. and J.D. degrees from Howard University. After completing law school and clerking for a federal judge, West entered the United States Army He was in the Army Field Artillery Corps from 1965 to 1968, then attended The JAG School at the University of Virginia. He entered U.S. Army JAG Corps, and he served as an Army lawyer from 1969 to 1973. He subsequently practiced law at the firm of Covington & Burling before being appointed an Associate Deputy Attorney General in the administration of President Gerald Ford. West held several posts in the administration of Jimmy Carter: General Counsel of the Navy from 1977 to 1979, Special Assistant to the Secretary and to the Deputy Secretary of Defense in 1979, and General Counsel of the Department of Defense from 1980 to 1981. As the Secretary of the Army, West weighed in on the Aberdeen scandal, prompting stricter enforcement and investigation into the Army's sexual harassment policies.

West returned to private practice in 1981 with the firm of Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler and later worked as senior vice president for government relations of the Northrop Corporation until he became a member of the Clinton administration. In September 1993, President Bill Clinton nominated West as Secretary of the Army. After receiving Congressional confirmation, he was sworn in as the 16th Secretary of the Army. In January 1998, West was named acting Secretary of Veterans Affairs following Jesse Brown's exit. Weeks later, Clinton nominated West to be the permanent Secretary; he was confirmed by the Senate on May 4, 1998. Upon his resignation in July 2000, West returned to the practice of law and then served as the president of the Washington, D.C. based Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies. He was a strong supporter of and past board member of the Mount Vernon preservation society.

West died of a heart attack while on a cruise between Barbados and Puerto Rico and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery.