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Home Town Easton, Pennsylvania
Last Address Doylestown, Pennsylvania
Date of Passing Oct 01, 1984
Wall/Plot Coordinates Plot: Section 30, Site 624-2
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Easton native George Jacob Richards, who retired from the Army as a major general, received the Distinguished Service Medal and the Legion of Merit award from the U.S. government and was made a Commander of the Legion of Honor by the French, died Monday in Doylestown Hospital. He was 93.
A resident of the Pine Run Community, Doylestown, he formerly lived in Camp Hill, Cumberland County. He was the husband of the later Esmee (MacMahon) Richards and the late Emeline (Dinkey) Richards.
A 1915 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., Richards served with the Army until retiring from active service in 1953. In 1955, he was named deputy secretary of the state highway department by then-Governor George Leader. He retired from that post in 1959.
In 1974, Pennsylvania awarded him its Distinguished Service Medal for, among other things, his support of the Army Reserve and National Guard, the promotion of understanding and a friendly relationship between the Reserve and the Regular Army, and his dedication to theneeds of society.
Much of his Army career was spent in the Corps of Engineers. He participated in the 1916 Punitive Expedition into Mexico, and later became district engineer for the First and Second Mississippi River districts at Memphis, Tenn.
He served as an assistant mathematics professor at West Point and, after graduating in 1930 from the Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., he took command of the 11th Engineer Combat Regiment at Corozal, Canal Zone, where the battalion engaged in mapping and maneuvers in Panama and the Canal Zone.
In 1933, he was assigned to the Budget and Legislative Planning Branch of the War Department General Staff. He served a tour as district engineer of the U.S. Great Lake Survey at Detroit, then was sent to Fort Ord, Calif., in 1940.
In 1941, he became the first chief of the budget division and budget officer for the War department. When the Department of Defense was formed in 1947 he became the first comptroller of the Army.
In 1949, he became inspector general of the European Command, stationed in Berlin and Heidelberg. In 1950, he was assigned as chief of the Military Advisory Group to France, stationed in Paris.
He received the Distinguished Service Medal for "maintaining budgetary planning on a sound basis and in developing and administering wartime budgets totalling more than $160 billion." He received the Legion of Merit award for an Army-wide study of supply and production that "resulted in the conservation of vast quantities of critical material and labor and thus contributed substantially to the prosecution of the war."
In 1953, Lafayette College, which he attended before going to West Point, awarded him an honorary doctor of science degree.
Born in Easton, he was a son of the late Elmer P. and Cora M. (Hodge) Richards.
He was a member of Olivet Presbyterian Church, Easton.
He was president of the University Center at Harrisburg, president of the Cumberland Valley Chapter of the Retired Officer Association, and chairman of Uniformed Services Retiree Group in Washington, D.C.
