Royal B. Lord

Royal Bertrand Lord (19 September 189921 October 1963) was a United States Army general who served in World War II.

A graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, ranked 4th in the class of 1923, Lord served as an instructor in tactics at West Point, and on construction projects including flood control on the Mississippi River and the Passamaquoddy Bay tidal power project in Maine. From 1936 to 1938 he was the head of the construction division of the Resettlement Administration and then the Farm Security Administration. During World War II he was the chief of staff of the Communications Zone in the European Theater of Operations, United States Army. He retired in 1946.

Early life

Royal Bertrand Lord was born in Worcester, Massachusetts, on 19 September 1899, the son of Edgar Harold Lord and his wife Lena Rita Lupien. He entered Brown University, from which he graduated in 1919 with a Bachelor of Science degree.

He entered the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, as an appointment from Rhode Island on 13 June 1919, and graduated on 12 June 1923, ranked fourth in his class.

Between the wars As was usual for high-ranking graduates, Lord was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Corps of Engineers. He completed his engineer training at the Engineer School at Fort Humphreys, Virginia, and was stationed at Fort William McKinley in the Philippines from 30 May 1924 to 16 April 1926. He built barrios to house families, and erected radio towers to link the islands together.

Lord commanded a company of the 6th Engineer Regiment at Fort Lawton, Washington, from 19 August 1931 to 3 October 1933, then went to St. Louis, Missouri, as assistant to the district engineer on 12 October 1933, where he worked on flood control projects on the Mississippi River. and in 1946 Brown University awarded him an honorary doctor of laws degree. and he was promoted to major general.

Lord became the chairman of the board and president of the Worldwide Development Corporation in New York City, and supervised large-scale housing projects in Argentina, and built the La Quinta Country Club in California. He served as a director of US Finishing Company, the Triplex Corporation of America, Voss Oil, ExComm List Industries, Glen Alden and Aconic Mining. He wrote articles that were published in Collier's, Popular Science, the Engineering News Record and other magazines. He retired in 1960, and built his own home overlooking a golf course in Rancho Santa Fe, California. He died suddenly on 21 October 1963, and was interred in the Chapel of the Chimes, Alameda County, California.

Dates of rank