Patrick Jay Hurley

PATRICK JAY HURLEY was born in the Choctaw Nation, Indian Territory, on 8 January 1883; graduated from Indian University (now Bacone College), 1905; received a law degree from the National University of Law, Washington, D.C., in 1908, and from George Washington University, Washington, D.C., in 1913; was admitted to the bar and commenced practice at Tulsa, Oklahoma, 1908; was admitted to the bar of the Supreme Court, 1912; was national attorney for the Choctaw Nation, 1912–1917; served in the Indian Territorial Volunteer Militia, 1902–1907, and the Oklahoma National Guard, 1914–1917; served with the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) in the Aisne-Marne, Meuse-Argonne, and St. Mihiel operations, rising to lieutenant colonel, and negotiated the access agreement between the AEF and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, 1919; married Ruth Wilson, 1919; served as Assistant Secretary of War, March–December 1929; served as Secretary of War, 9 December 1929–3 March 1933; supervised Army activities to alleviate the effects of the depression, 1930–1931; urged an increase in pay and recommended the enactment of comprehensive promotion legislation for the Army; issued the executive order to Chief of Staff General MacArthur to evict the Bonus Army from Washington, 1932; was called to active duty as a brigadier general and served on a special mission to Australia and as the first U.S. minister to New Zealand, 1942; was a personal representative of the President of the United States to the Soviet Union, 1942, and to the nations of the Near East and Middle East, 1943; was a presidential emissary and then ambassador to China, 1943–1944; was promoted to major general, 1944; returned to private interests in New Mexico; died in Santa Fe, New Mexico, on 30 July 1963.


The Artist

Frank Townsend Hutchens (1869–1937) was born in Canandaigua, New York, and studied art at the Art Students League in New York City and at the Académie Colorossi and Académie Julien in Paris, France. He exhibited at the Royal Academy in London, the Paris Salon, and the Amsterdam International Exhibition as well as at the National Academy of Design in New York and numerous galleries in major cities around the United States. Hutchens divided his time between homes in Norwalk, Connecticut, and Taos, New Mexico, and it was the latter connection that brought him to Secretary Hurley’s attention as a portraitist.

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Portrait, Patrick Jay Hurley

PATRICK JAY HURLEY
Hoover Administration
By Frank Townsend Hutchens
Oil on canvas, 35¼" x 29½", 1932


page created 6 March 2001


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