J. William Middendorf


John William Middendorf II was an American diplomat who was the 62nd Secretary of the Navy from 1974 to 1977 and the United States Ambassador to the European Communities from 1985 to 1987. He wrote books and articles on politics, security, and history.

Early life

John William Middendorf II was born in Baltimore, Maryland, on September 22, 1924. He attended Gilman School and Middlesex School, where he was on the rowing team. He graduated in 1943. He was 17 when the attack on Pearl Harbor brought the United States into World War II.

Education and military service

Middendorf received a Bachelor of Naval Science degree from College of the Holy Cross in 1945. In World War II, he served in the United States Navy from 1944 to 1946 as engineer officer and navigator aboard USS LCS(L) 53. He was discharged from the Navy in 1946.
He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Harvard College in 1947, where he was a member of the Hasty Pudding Theatricals and the Owl Club. He also graduated from New York University's Graduate School of Business Administration, receiving an MBA degree in 1954.

Early career

Middendorf became an investment banker and in 1963 in partnership with Austen Colgate formed his own company, Middendorf, Colgate and Company. An early member of Goldwater 1964 presidential campaign|Barry Goldwater's presidential campaign], he served as treasurer of that campaign, and continued to have the same duties with the Republican National Committee from 1965 to 1969.

Government service

Shortly after taking office in 1969, President Richard Nixon appointed Middendorf as United States Ambassador to the Netherlands. Middendorf served in this position until June 1973. After returning to the U.S., he became Under Secretary of the Navy; not long after, Secretary John Warner moved on to become head of the Bicentennial Commission, and Middendorf was told he could expect promotion to Secretary. However, when his nomination seemed to be stalled, he discovered that Secretary of Defense James Schlesinger had a candidate of his own. Whereupon, Middendorf paid a personal call on many of the senators he had worked with while he was Treasurer of the Republican Party—and soon enough he had been nominated and confirmed as Secretary of the Navy, serving until the end of the administration of President Gerald Ford. As he would later write, "Life is relationships. Politics is compromise."
During his tenure and again using his legislative contacts, Middendorf helped increase the Navy budget by 60 percent while the U.S. Army and U.S. Air Force budgets remained relatively flat. Programs he championed included the Ohio-class submarine and the companion Trident missile, the Aegis surface-launched missile system. He also championed the F/A-18 Hornet carrier-based fighter attack aircraft—which Middendorf arranged to have dubbed "Hornet", as a tribute to his Revolutionary War ancestor merchant-shipping Captain William Stone, who donated two ships to the fledgling Navy which were then renamed "Wasp" and "Hornet". Those names survived many years and many ships, but as the fleet began to shrink and as ship-naming became more political—i.e., breaking the old rules and naming ships after living politicians—there weren't enough new candidates for traditional names.
Incoming President Jimmy Carter invited Middendorf to stay on as Secretary of the Navy; however, as Middendorf noted in his 2011 memoir Potomac Fever, he told the President-elect "that it was the best job in government and therefore an insecure post for a Republican in a Democratic administration." During the Carter presidency, Middendorf was back in the private sector, as President and Chief Executive Officer of Financial General Bankshares. Next, he headed the CIA transition team for incoming President Ronald Reagan and was then named Permanent Representative of the United States of America to the Organization of American States, with the rank of Ambassador. He served in the post until 1984, when he accepted appointment as U. S. Representative to the European Communities serving until 1987.

Other pursuits and interests

In 2006, Middendorf published a book describing his work with the Goldwater campaign. Glorious Disaster: Barry Goldwater's Presidential Campaign and the Origins of the Conservative Movement details how Goldwater's campaign became the foundation of the modern Conservative movement.
In 2011, he published his autobiography, Potomac Fever.
He composed eight symphonies and numerous marches for Navy and Marine Corps bands.
Ambassador Middendorf was a member of the board of directors of the International Republican Institute. He was a member of the board of trustees for The Heritage Foundation, an influential Washington, D.C.–based public policy research institute.
Middendorf studied stained glass production with Dutch-born expert Joep Nicolas. He was on the board of the New York Studio School of Drawing, Painting and Sculpture.

Personal life and death

Middendorf married Isabelle Paine. They had a daughter, Frances, and a son, John. He died in Fall River, Massachusetts, on October 24, 2025, at the age of 101.

Honors and awards

Domestic decorations and medals

Foreign orders, decorations and medals

Other awards

Middendorf has received the "Edwin Franko Goldman Award" from the American Bandmasters Association and was a member of the American Society of Composers and Performers.
Other honors include:

Honorary degrees