Francis C. Harrington

Francis Clark Harrington (September 10, 1887 – September 30, 1940) was a colonel in the US Army Corps of Engineers and administrator of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) under President Franklin D. Roosevelt during the Great Depression.

Career Harrington attended the Virginia Military Institute and then graduated from West Point in 1909 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. Harrington graduated from the Command and General Staff School in 1928 and the Army War College in 1929. He then spent four years on the War Department General Staff (1929–1933), and two years in Paris at the École de Guerre,

Alongside Harry Hopkins, Colonel Harrington served as Chief Engineer and Assistant Commissioner of the WPA, helping to structure and manage the massive new organization. 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 Evening Star reads:

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. FDR stated, "The whole country has sustained a very great loss in the death of Colonel Harrington."

Personal life

Colonel Harrington was born in Bristol, Virginia, on September 10, 1887 to William Harrington and Victoria Gautier.

In June 1915, 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, D.C., 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 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.