Samuel McRoberts (U.S. general)

Major General Samuel McRoberts (December 20, 1868 – September 8, 1947) was a U.S. Army general.

Early life
Robert Walter Mearns was born on December 20th, 1868 in Malta Bend, Missouri to Alexander Highlander McRoberts, a farmer, and Ellen Sisk McRoberts. His grandparents were Alexander and Nancy (Donnell) McRoberts, and his great grandfather was Samuel McRoberts, who came to Virginia from Scotland during the American Revolutionary War. He attended Baker University, where he received an A.B. degree in 1891 and an M.A. in 1894. He graduated from the University of Michigan in 1893 (L.B. Bachelor of Letters) and was admitted to the bar. He began his legal practice in Chicago, Illinois. From 1985 to 1900, he was an attorney for Armour and Company and later transferred to the financial department where he was made treasurer of the company and manager of all Armour interests in 1904. During this time, he served as president of the Illinois Tunnel Company for three years. McRoberts was vice president of the National City Bank in New York until his resignation in 1917.

Military career
In 1917, upon the invitation of the United States War Department, McRoberts was commissioned Major in the Reserve Corps for service in the Ordnance Department in Washington, D.C. On November 28, 1917, he was promoted to colonel of ordnance and was made Chief ot eh Procurement Division. On August 8, 1918, he was promoted to Brigadier-General and sent to France, where he served until the end of the war. He was honorably discharged on January 15, 1919, but was recommissioned a brigadier general in the Officers Reserve Corps.In recognition of his contributions in World War I as a Brigadier General for the Procurement Division in the Office of the Chief of Ordnance, the United States Government conferred upon McRoberts the Distinguished Service Medal and the French Government made him a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor.

Civilian life
McRoberts donated to many charitable causes, notably in obtaining settlement rights for a group of Canadian Mennonites in Paraguay. He published two books, 'The Extension of American Banking in Foreign Countries' in 1910 and 'Russia's Future Needs for Capital' in 1916. Baker University gave him an LL.D. in 1919. McRoberts served as Chairman of The Economic Club of New York for the term 1930-1932.

Personal life
On October 9, 1895, he married Mary Agnes Caldwell of Whichita, Kansas; she passed away in 1904. He married Harriet Pearl Skinner of Creston, Iowa, on September 1, 1906. McRoberts died in New York City on September 8, 1947.