Carlisle Runge
Carlisle Piehl Runge was a Wisconsin professor and department head, author, environmentalist, and politician who served as Assistant U.S. Secretary of Defense, Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Wisconsin, and Director of the United Nations Adriatic Environmental Study in Yugoslavia.
Early life and education
Born in 1920 in Seymour, Wisconsin, in Outagamie County, Runge attended the University of Wisconsin–Madison and was on the debate team and majored in American Institutions. He was also President of the Student Board. Runge served as a logistics officer in the Quartermaster Corps of the Third U.S. Army under General George S. Patton during World War II, from 1942 until 1946, where he achieved the rank of Major and was awarded the Bronze Star. In addition he received four Battle Stars for engagements in the European theater. He landed at Omaha Beach with the Third Army and ended the war in Berlin where he was affiliated with the O.S.S. Runge also attended Oxford University for a year at the end of the war.Upon his return to civilian life in the United States, he attended the University of Wisconsin Law School where he graduated in 1948. During his time at UW Madison, Runge belonged to Sigma Phi in Harold Bradley House.
Career
Upon his admission to the bar in 1948, Runge started his career of public service as Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Wisconsin. In 1951, he joined the faculty of the University of Wisconsin Law School as Assistant Dean, and in less than seven years he attained the rank of a full professor. Runge later became the National Director of the Carnegie Foundation's Security Task Force. During his time as a professor, Runge continued to serve in the Wisconsin Army National Guard and attained the rank of colonel and Logistics Officer for the division.Runge served as an active member of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin. Runge is perhaps best known in Wisconsin politics for his role as the Chairman of the highly publicized 1952 "Wisconsin Citizen's Committee on the Record of Joseph McCarthy," a group that made the first definitive study of the unsubstantiated nature of the Senator's charges and sold 100,000 copies of their findings. The committee's findings were run in three state newspapers.
Kennedy Administration (1961–62)
In 1961, Runge was appointed by President of the United States John F. Kennedy to be Assistant Secretary of Defense for Manpower, Personnel and Reserve. In this position, Runge served as one of the leaders of the President's Missile Sites Labor Commission, played an instrumental role in the study and deployment of reserve troops, and advocated against racial discrimination against African Americans in the military.Runge was supportive of efforts of the American Veterans Committee to ensure adequate veterans' pensions and worked with the NAACP to eliminate segregationist practices in the military and its reserve components. In 1962, Runge was a supporter and contributor to the Presidential Commission on the Status of Women. Runge later recorded an Oral History with the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum where he described the 1960 Democratic National Convention and Democratic primary in Wisconsin, the internal operations of the Defense Department under Robert McNamara, and relations between the military branches and the Defense Department.