J. WILLIAM MIDDENDORF II, 101, diedFriday, October 24, at Charlton Memorial, Fall River, Massachusetts, surrounded by his loving family. He is survived by two daughters, Frances Middendorf and Dr. Amy Givler, and her husband, Don; a son, Ralph Middendorf, and his wife, Sofia; and a daughter-in-law, Jeni Middendorf. The Ambassador waspre-deceased by Isabelle Jackson Paine, his wife of 63 years, his daughter Martha, and his son John. Grandchildren include Martha, Chandler, John, Rowen, Remi, Laila,and Wolfie.The Ambassador has four great-grandchildren, two of whom are namesakes, Isabelle and William.
A Memorial Service will be held on Saturday, Nov 22, at the United Congregational Church, 1 Common Street, in Little Compton, at 11 A.M.
Burial will be at Arlington Cemetery at a date to be determined.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Naval War College Foundation, Inc., where Ambassador Middendorf was a 40-year member.
J. William Middendorf had a long career in public service. He served as an advisor to five presidents: Eisenhower, Nixon, Ford, Carter, and Reagan. As Secretary of the Navy, he sponsored four new long lead-time major Navy programs: the Trident Missile, the Ohio Class Submarine Program, which still carries 70 percent of America's nuclear warheads; the AEGIS Missile System along with its 74 Arleigh Burke destroyers, the F-18 Attack Fighter plane and the Heavy Lift C53E Helicopter for the Marine Corp., providing new fighting capability. Remarkably, these weapon systems are still front and center in the United States' defense arsenal. Nineteen additional Arleigh Burke destroyers are under construction, including DDG 138, the J. William Middendorf II, scheduled for launch in 2027.
Middendorf tried to join the Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps at Harvard in 1943, but there were no openings, so he transferred to Holy Cross College in Worcester, Massachusetts. The NROTC matched the Naval Academy's academic standards. Middendorf was one of the first Protestants to attend this Catholic University. He went out for the basketball team and complained about a little fellow who ran circles around him. It was Bob Cousy, an All-American college player, a member of the world champion Boston Celtics, and an inductee into the National Basketball Hall of Fame. Middendorf took courses in navigation, naval history, engineering, gunnery, and ship stability. After graduating from Holy Cross, he served as a naval officer in World War II, stationed in China, first as a member of the occupation forces and, briefly, as part of the security detail for General George Marshall, who tried to broker peace between Mao Zedong and Chiang Kai-shek. Marshall halted the shipment of weapons to the Nationalists in 1945, a decision that placed Communists in control of China four years later.
In the late 1950s, Middendorf had a personal run-in with Fidel Castro. He had negotiated a license with W.R. Grace Company to use its patent for producing hardboard from bagasse, a byproduct of sugar cane stalks. Usually, these stalks are just burned, but the hardboard they can be made into is extremely useful and valuable. W. R. Grace's hardboard plant was in Chile, and Middendorf had to decide whether to establish a plant in either Puerto Rico or Cuba. Cuba had the strongest currency and the most stable economy at that time. For decades, it had been one of the most prosperous countries in the Caribbean. But choosing Cuba for his plant was the worst economic decision Middendorf ever made. A few years later, when Castro took over the country, he and his enforcers confiscated the plant without compensation.
In March 1975, President Gerald Ford reached out to Secretary of the Navy Middendorf to develop a plan to evacuate American citizens and at-risk Vietnamese as Communists gained control of the country. Middendorf and Admiral James Holloway, CNO, devised a helicopter evacuation, "Operation Frequent Wind," that prevented 8,000 Americans and Vietnamese from being captured by the Vietcong. As Secretary of the Navy, he had several meetings with the Shah of Iran. When four frigates under construction for the U.S. Navy were placed in limbo due to severe cuts to the defense budget, Middendorf approached the Shah and asked him to purchase them for the Iranian Navy. Before it could be finalized, the Shah came under fire from Islamic protestors in Iran, led by Khomeini. The Shah sought support from the United States, but it never materialized. Some blamed the State Department, which discouraged U.S. diplomats from engaging with opponents of the Shah. Others blamed a CIA study that reported to President Jimmy Carter in August 1978 that "Iran is not in a revolutionary or even a 'pre-revolutionary' situation."
In 1978, as Middendorf was leaving his post as Secretary of the Navy, Lt. General Daniel Graham invited him to join a new organization called "Peace through Strength." President Ronald Reagan's embrace of this concept ultimately led to the collapse of the Soviet Union. President Reagan appointed Middendorf to head a transition team for the CIA after the 1980 election. Middendorf's team saw signs that the nation's espionage machinery was rusting and needed serious updating. One of the first problems detected was the lack of information sharing between the CIA and the FBI. Middendorf's recommendation calling for more transparency between the FBI and the CIA was ignored. All the terrorists involved in 9/11 were on a CIA "watch list" that was not shared by the FBI. If it had, 9/11 could have been prevented. Middendorf's team was also concerned about potential leaks within the CIA and the FBI. At the time, the Soviet Union was rounding up and executing spies behind the Iron Curtain with alarming regularity. Middendorf learned that the CIA polygraph testing was conducted in-house, which meant friends testing friends. If his recommendation to outsource the testing had been followed, notorious spies like Aldrich Ames and Robert Hansen might have been caught before they sold critical information to the Soviets.
When President Reagan appointed him as Ambassador to the Organization of American States, Middendorf thought he was getting a relatively sleepy post. Revolutions in Nicaragua and El Salvador, the fight between Great Britain and Argentina over the Falklands, the U.S. rescue of Grenada from the Communists, smoldering issues throughout Central America, and Mexican support for Castro and other leftist organizations marked his watch. One of Middendorf's most important early contributions to OAS was the development of the Caribbean Basin Initiative (CBI), a comprehensive package of political and economic measures to stabilize the Caribbean Basin. The CBI included a country-by-country assessment, highlighting the business and industrial sectors with the highest potential. One of its key features was the ability to engage in one-way free trade with the United States. UN Ambassador Jeanne Kirkpatrick and Middendorf successfully presented the plan to President Reagan. A country had to have a non-Communist government, an extradition treaty with the United States, an agreement to abide by copyright rules, and cooperate in regional anti-narcotics efforts to participate in the CBI. The initial beneficiaries were twenty-one nations in the Caribbean, Central America, and the northern coast of South America.
In 1985, as Middendorf was leaving OAS, President Reagan asked him to head a task force for an initiative called "Project Economic Justice." The group confronted head-on a key element that was keeping the Latin American nations from realizing their true potential: government regulation of the economy and state ownership of many major industries — typically heavily subsidized, non-competitive failures that were a constant drain on resources. It encouraged free and open markets, the expansion of private property, and the reduction of government ownership. For twelve years, he was co-treasurer (with Lord Jeffry Rippon) of the International Democratic Union (IDU), which was founded by Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan, with members in Europe, Asia, Canada, and Latin America, including foreign ministers and heads of state. He promoted democracy worldwide. In 1984, along with Fred Biebel, Frank Farenkopf, and Dick Allen, he was a founder of the International Republican Institute (IRI), working alongside the National Democratic Institute (NDI) to develop democratic institutions in 50 countries.
In 1991, as communism collapsed in the Soviet Union, President Boris Yeltsin invited a team from the Heritage Foundation to help draft a constitution for the new Russia. The team was headed by Dr. Edwin J. Feulner, the late president of the Heritage Foundation, and included Middendorf as a member of the Board of Trustees. Relations between Yeltsin and the Duma (Russian Parliament) had been deteriorating for some time. The chief cause of Russia's low standard of living was the inefficiency of its government-owned and managed enterprises, which misused the country's skilled workforce, scarce capital, and raw materials. Yeltsin realized that privatization —the process of transferring state-owned facilities to private-sector owners —was the only way for the new Russia to survive. After several visits and working with the head of the Russian Delegation appointed by Yeltsin, Middendorf helped write the "Russian Privatization Handbook." Unfortunately, communist members of the Duma prevented many key recommendations from taking effect. They took a dozen key industries for themselves, including oil, iron, and steel utilities, which now form Putin's power base.
John William Middendorf II was born in Baltimore, Maryland, on September 22, 1924, the son of Sarah and Harry Middendorf. He grew up in nearby Charleston, Maryland, and attended Charleston Normal School and Gilman School. He then attended Middlesex School, where he rowed. He left Harvard to join the Navy during WWII and served as an engineer officer and navigator aboard USS LCS(L)53. He was discharged from the Navy in 1946 and 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. He became an investment banker and, in partnership with Austen Colgate, formed his own company, Middendorf, Colgate and Company, with a seat on the New York Stock Exchange. An early member of Barry Goldwater's presidential campaign, he served as its treasurer and later held the same position with the Republican National Committee from 1965 to 1969.
In 1953, Ambassador Middendorf married Isabelle Paine, a member of the Paine Webber investment family. She was a 1953 graduate of the Children's Hospital School of Nursing in Boston and worked in the preemie division at St. Vincent's Hospital in New York City. They lived at Peter Cooper Village in Manhattan for the first year, then moved to 1170 Fifth Avenue, where they had purchased a cooperative apartment. After the birth of their first child (Frances) and with another on the way, they decided it was time for a more suburban environment and picked Greenwich, Connecticut. The couple had four additional children: Martha, Amy, John, and Ralph. Their neighbor was Prescott Bush, Sr., senator, father of George H. W., and grandfather of George W. Bush. Middendorf's Greenwich, Connecticut, friends were astonished when he told them he was leaving a seven-figure-a-year Wall Street partnership for a forty-thousand-dollar job as Ambassador to the Netherlands. The Ambassador had learned how to make money. Now, he wanted to learn how to make a difference. He had been bitten by the bug of public service, which so overwhelmed his immune system that he never looked back. For him, it certainly was, to quote his friend Robert Frost, a journey on "the road less traveled by."
The most significant non-official and non-family event of his tour as Ambassador to the Netherlands was his re-entry into the music world. In the spring of 1971, he was fortunate enough to meet an absolute musical genius, Somtow Sucharitkul, the son of the Thai Ambassador to the Netherlands. When he discovered that Middendorf had always been interested in composing but had no idea how to go about it, he volunteered as a teacher and, more critically, collaborator. It was a wonderful interlude for Middendorf in the evenings after his 8- to 9-hour workday. Middendorf composed a fair number of works, ranging from nocturnes to operas, marches, and eight symphonies. Many, if not most, have been in commemoration of something: a visit to a foreign country or the launching of a new Navy ship. He composed at least 80 marches for Navy ships and, a few years ago, was most gratified to receive the "Edwin Franko Goldman Award" from the American Bandmasters Association. On January 11, 2025, a concert of Middendorf's compositions was held at the Park Theatre in Cranston. Rhode Island. It was entitled "To Rhode Island With Love" and introduced "The Ocean State Symphony." The Gilded Age Orchestra of Newport, Rhode Island, provided the music under the direction of conductors Dr. Mark Stickney and Dr. Christopher Brellochs. The program included "Violin Concerto in D Minor," "The Battle of Midway March," "Rokhasanneh's Conversion Aria" from Act 1, the "Medal of Honor March," "A Holland Symphony, and the "J. William Middendorf March," written to commemorate the naming of an Arleigh Burke Aegis destroyer in his name. An enthusiastic audience provided a standing ovation at the end of the concert.
Middendorf's love of drawing began early. He attended the Middlesex School in Concord, Massachusetts, where he studied art under visiting art teacher Frank Benson, a member of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. He was very kind to Middendorf when he was young, sparking his enthusiasm for watercolors. As a student at Harvard, Middendorf signed up for a fine arts course at the Fogg Museum because he had heard it was an easy gut course in which one might catch up on sleep during slide shows after a strenuous crew practice in the morning. Instead, Middendorf became hooked, riveted by the excellent slides displayed, including Rembrandt and those colorful impressionists. It changed his life and led to his participation as a board member of several art museums, including the Baltimore Museum of Art and the Corcoran in Washington, D.C. Middendorf was the founding Chairman of the Friends of the American Wing at New York's Metropolitan Museum. His name is carved on the marble staircase, reflecting his status as a major museum benefactor.
No matter where he went, he sketched practically everyone he encountered. He has 620 sketchbooks filled with drawings of people (some famous, some anonymous), pets, and landscapes. He made several thousand sketches of leaders and associates, 150 illustrations of Art Historian friends, and many thousands of drawings of his children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, recording every stage of their younger lives. He has over 10,000 drawings in his collection. In recent years, his daughter Franny, an incredible artist and art teacher, has exhibited her and Middendorf's paintings in solo exhibitions in New York. His son, Ralph, is also an accomplished artist. His daughter, Dr. Amy Givler, is the author of Hope in the Face of Cancer: A Survivor’s Guide.
One of Middendorf's most rewarding experiences as an artist was the result of an invitation from a minister who asked him to teach a drawing course for the inmates of the Bristol County House of Corrections in North Dartmouth, Massachusetts. Every Tuesday night for five years, Middendorf met with male and female inmates in separate groups, teaching drawing and painting with watercolors in their prison cells. At the end of each class, he would pass out cardboard mats so the participants could frame their artwork. It allowed them to see their work as a framed, finished piece and helped establish a work ethic and a goal. Some appeared to be experiencing a sense of personal accomplishment for the first time. Middendorf saw a lot of pride develop on their faces as their drawing skills developed. In a letter to him, Thomas Hodgson, Bristol County Sheriff, said, "Thank you for all you have done volunteering to teach our inmates the transformative value of learning to create artwork and the wisdom of finding beauty and peace in the friendship you share with them. Your character and love of humanity shine in your willingness to share your time and talents with us." Sheriff Hodgson also told Middendorf that the rate of recidivism - the tendency of convicted felons to return to prison – was at a very low percentage for his students.
Amb. Middendorf had a reputation for being able to throw a baseball through a wall. His problem was control, not speed, as he never knew which wall he would hit. Despite his control problem, he received the following letter from John S. Schwarz of the New York Giants baseball team in February 1944:
Dear Bill:
This is to notify you that you are invited to report to our training camp on March 12, 1944, for a spring training trial at our expense. We have notified Mr. David Beck of the Southern Railway to have your local representative supply you with a railway ticket to Lakewood. Please bring your uniform, shoes, and glove with you. P.S. You are to report to Manager Mel Ott at the Hotel New Yorker on Sunday, March 12, 1944, in New York City.
Middendorf's baseball career ended about a week later when he joined the U.S. Navy. He had better success in another sport, rowing. His rowing career was inspired by his father and uncle, legendary Harvard oarsmen who won the Grand Challenge Cup on July 4, 1914, at the Royal Henley Regatta. Middendorf has been active in many rowing contests, winning both a U.S. National Masters and a World Masters Rowing Championship. He was awarded the Hero Sportsman of the Year Gold Medal Award for stopping during a race to help a fellow oarsman who had suffered a possible heart attack and was at risk of drowning. He stroked the victorious Thames Rowing Club Crew in the famous Vogalonga 20-mile regatta race around the Islands of Venice, in which 4,000 boats participated. He participated in 20 "Head of the Charles" races in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and won a national championship in Masters Sculling in 1979. New Zealand's Jay Limerick and Middendorf were presented the World Masters Rowing Championship Globe (Pairs) in Toronto in 1985. In 2020, at the age of 96, he competed in seven virtual Regattas, winning all.
Middendorf served as a judge for the 1960 Olympics in Rome. He played on the U.S. National Team in the 1963 World Championships of Men's Field Hockey in Lyon, France. In 1964, he served on the U.S. Olympic Selection Committee for field hockey and was selected for the team as player-manager. While serving as Secretary of the Navy, CNO Admiral James Holloway expressed concern about the large number of senior officers and chief petty officers who were overweight and lacked fitness, prompting him to seek ways to promote physical well-being. Middendorf started the "Twenty-minute Club," in which he would visit a base such as Okinawa and invite everyone to run a three-mile course in 20 minutes. He would hold the stopwatch. If some struggling soul made it across in, say, twenty-four or twenty-five minutes, Middendorf called out the time as "twenty."
All told, many thousands received "Twenty Minute Club" certificates. Around the same time, a group of Marine Corps Reservists asked him to endorse an effort to enhance morale and physical fitness and encourage some young men and women to enlist. They wanted to stage a classic 26.5-mile marathon that would start and finish at the Marine Corps War Memorial in Arlington, Virginia. Middendorf not only endorsed the idea but also put up a scale model of the memorial as a trophy for the winner. The first Marine Corps Marathon was held in 1976, with just over 1,000 finishers. These days, thirty thousand may enter the race. In truth, the race has reached its maximum capacity (as determined by the police and other safety forces), and online registration usually fills up within a few days of opening. It is now the fifth-largest Marathon in the United States. The race has been dubbed the "People's Marathon" because anyone can enter; there are no big cash prizes to attract elite runners, just the "Middendorf Award" for the winner. It is not unusual for a first timer to win. Middendorf entered and finished eight times. His best time was 4:22, just about twice that of the winner. Middendorf never felt that he was a top athlete, but he had a secret. When, in every race, you reach a point where it is impossible to do better, you call on all the reserves built up over months of training, turn a corner, and new energy arises. He called it "The Middendorf Corner," which makes all the difference.
By getting close to the culture of each of his tours of duty, Middendorf felt diplomatic doors would open more readily, and they did. The State Department must have agreed because they twice presented him with the prestigious Distinguished Superior Honor Award. He is a forty-year trustee of the Heritage Foundation (now Emirates) and a forty-year trustee at the Naval Historical Foundation. He is a fifty-year chairman of the Committee for Monetary Research and Education and a forty-year chairman of the Defense Forum Foundation. For forty years, the Ambassador served as Chairman of The Navy League of the U.S. Awards Panel and as the founding Chairman of the U.S. Navy Memorial. He also served as President of the Reagan Alumni Association and Chairman of the Navy War College. Middendorf was also a long-term treasurer of the International Republican Institute with John McCain as Chairman. He also served with Danny Graham on the Peace Through Strength Board in the late 1970s, which Ronald Reagan later cited many times.
He also served as a trustee of:
• Georgetown University
• The Hoover Institution
• Boston Symphony
• Baltimore Museum of Art
• Corcoran Museum
• The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)
• New York Historical Society
• New York Studio School
• President of Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts.
He was a member of The Council of American Ambassadors and an Honorary Member of The Society of Cincinnati.
He was inducted into The Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame in 2014 and selected as a member of the 50 Greatest Living Rhode Islanders in 2016.
In 2025, he was nominated for the prestigious Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award of the United States.
Whether as Secretary of the Navy, ambassador, or businessman, Bill Middendorf always followed a simple rule: If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.