Francis C. Harrington



Francis C. Harrington was a colonel in the US Army Corps of Engineers and administrator of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) under Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Career
Harrington graduated from Virginia Military Institute and then in 1909 from West Point as second in his class. After US Army Engineer School and several teaching posts, he served as chief engineer for the Panama Canal, gaining valuable experience in supervising labor on a large scale. He then spent four years on the War Department General Staff (1929–1933), and two years in Paris at the École de Guerre, before returning to Washington to assist with the formation of the WPA.

Alongside Harry Hopkins, Colonel Harrington served as Chief Engineer and Assistant Commissioner of the WPA, helping to structure and manage the massive new organization. Hopkins remarked on his impact: “[Harrington’s] good judgment, clear vision, and capacity for organizing for a huge task have left a mark in the field of government administration which will be more and more appreciated as time passes.”

When Hopkins became Commerce Secretary in 1938, FDR appointed Colonel Harrington as WPA Commissioner. At a time when the WPA and other New Deal programs were under intensifying political pressure, Colonel Harrington, a respected nonpartisan figure, offered FDR a politically safe choice. Colonel Harrington served as WPA Commissioner until his death in 1940 at age 53. Under Harrington’s leadership, the WPA employed 8.5 million people on 1.4 million projects, including 651,097 miles of highways and roads, 124,011 bridges, 39,397 schools, and 953 airports, helping to stimulate the American economy and improve communities around the country.

Colonel Harrington’s obituary in the New York Post states: “To many of those who knew him, Colonel Harrington typified the ideal public servant. A man of great personal charm, he had disciplined himself to approach any task with an objective detachment which is so essential, but often lacking, in the administration of public affairs... He was a credit to the ideals and training of the Army. Men of this type are hard to replace.” Another obituary in the Washington Star quotes FDR: “Today the whole country has suffered a very great loss.”

Personal life
Colonel Harrington was born in Bristol, Virginia, in 1887 to William Harrington and Victoria Gautier.

Harrington married Eleanor Crozier Reyburn of Philadelphia, daughter of John E. Reyburn, former US Congressman and Mayor of Philadelphia, and granddaughter of Robert Crozier, former US Attorney and US Senator from Kansas. He and his wife lived in Washington, DC, and had two children: William Stuart (born in 1918, and graduated from Yale in 1939) and Mary Eleanor (born in 1928, and graduated from Barnard College in 1952).

An avid poker player and horseracing fan, Harrington joked that betting on the famous horse War Admiral put his children through school.

In 1938, Harrington lost his beloved wife after a long illness. In September 1940, age 53 and in good health, Harrington died of a sudden, severe internal infection. He was buried with full military honors at West Point.

Honors
In 1940, Colonel Harrington was awarded the Army Distinguished Service Medal for “exceptionally meritorious and distinguished service in a duty of great responsibility. As Chief Engineer and later as Administrator of the Works Progress Administration and Commissioner of Work Projects, Colonel Harrington was charged with the planning and administration of the greatest peacetime effort ever undertaken by any bureau or department of the Government. During this period he displayed extraordinary qualities of leadership and unusual talents for administration. As advisor to the President and the Congress his professional counsel was marked by great vigor and vision leading to measures both executive and legislative which contributed directly to the well being of millions and indirectly to the benefit of the entire Nation.”

In 1943, a Victory ship built in Maryland was named in honor of Colonel Harrington. The Francis C. Harrington was damaged by a mine off the coast of Normandy in 1944, repaired, and continued to serve as a merchant vessel until 1962.