Lyman L. Lemnitzer; Diplomat and Retired Joint Chiefs Chairman

WASHINGTON —  Gen. Lyman Louis Lemnitzer, a brilliant organizer and diplomat who qualified as a parachutist at the age of 51 and rose to become chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, died Saturday in Washington. He was 89.

Lemnitzer, son of a Homesdale, Pa., shoe company executive, was graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1920 and entered the Army’s coast artillery. His last assignment was as supreme commander of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, from which he retired in 1969. In 1987, President Reagan awarded him the Medal of Freedom.

At Lemnitzer’s retirement, President Nixon awarded him the Distinguished Service Medals of the Army, Navy and Air Force. He received military decorations from 15 countries.

Lemnitzer was a studious, even-tempered officer with a reputation as a “brain,” whose dignity hid athletic skill that saw him pitch for the Army War College team in 1940 and win marksmanship awards for the Coast Artillery Rifle Team as a young officer.

Wife’s Comment

His wife, Katherine, once said he took papers into his study every evening and commented, “I don’t know whether he goes in there to work, or read or snooze.”

Army Secretary John O. Marsh said: “He will be remembered as a patriot, a valiant combat leader and a wise and capable statesman. . . . His passing will be mourned by not only Americans, but by the champions of democracy throughout the world.”

Gen. Carl E. Vuono, Army Chief of Staff, said Lemnitzer’s life “stands as eloquent testimony to the enduring value of a lifetime of service to country.”

Lemnitzer is survived by his widow, Katherine Mead Tryon Lemnitzer, a daughter and a son. No cause of death was given in the Army’s announcement of Lemnitzer’s passing.

Arlington Burial

He will be buried in Arlington National Cemetery on Tuesday after a funeral Mass at the Old Post Chapel of Ft. Myer, near the Pentagon.

Lyman Louis Lemnitzer, attached to the War Plans Division of Army Headquarters, helped plan the Allied invasion of French North Africa in November, 1942, and served on the staff of Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, the commander of the invasion.

He accompanied Gen. Mark Clark on a dramatic mission by submarine to visit French officials three weeks before the invasion.

Later, he negotiated with Marshal Pietro Badoglio for the surrender of Italy in 1943, and with SS Gen. Karl Wolff in Switzerland for the surrender of German forces in northern Italy and southern Austria a few days before the final surrender of Germany in May, 1945.

For much of World War II, he was chief of staff to British Field Marshal Sir Harold Alexander, supreme commander in the Mediterranean.

Lemnitzer helped plan the beginnings of NATO in the late 1940s and helped persuade the Senate to ratify the NATO treaty. Assigned to command the 11th Airborne Division at Ft. Campbell, Ky., in 1950, he quietly took the basic airborne course to qualify as a parachutist.

He commanded the 7th Infantry Division in the battles of Heartbreak Ridge, the Punch Bowl and Chorwon Valley in the Korean War and was awarded the Silver Star for gallantry. After the war, he served as commander of U.N. forces in Korea before becoming Army chief of staff in 1959, chairman of the Joint Chiefs in 1960 and NATO commander in 1962.