Joseph Cowles Mehaffey

Joseph Cowles Mehaffey (born November 20, 1889 in Lima , Ohio - †  February 18, 1963 ) was an American officer. Between 1944 and 1948 he was governor of the Panama Canal Zone .

Career

Joseph Mehaffey attended public schools in his homeland. Between 1907 and 1911 he graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point . He then began a long career as an officer in the Corps of Engineers of the United States Army . First he was stationed for a short time in Rock Island ( Illinois ), Memphis ( Tennessee ) and New Orleans ( Louisiana ). Then he was in the Panama Canal Zone for the first time for a few months in early 1912. He was then transferred to the Engineering District of Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania . After training in Washington, DC , he served in the Eastern Department of the Corps of Engineers in 1914 . In 1915 he was a member of the Alaska Road Commission , which planned and built roads in the Alaska Territory . In 1917 and 1919, during the First World War , he was a staff officer at the headquarters of the Corps of Engineers in Washington. After that he was stationed in France and England for some time . In 1921 he was promoted to major. Since 1922 he was on the faculty of the Military Academy at West Point. In 1929 he was back in the Panama Canal Zone for a short time before taking an advanced training course at Fort Leavenworth , which he completed in 1935. Then he was again on the staff of the headquarters of the engineers .

From 1941 Joseph Mehaffey was responsible for the maintenance of the Panama Canal. In 1942 he was promoted to brigadier general; In 1944 he succeeded Glen Edgar Edgerton as governor of the Panama Canal Zone. He held this office until 1948. On November 30, 1949, Joseph Mehaffey retired. He died on February 18, 1963.

Web links

• Short biography at the Panama Canal Authority