Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1955-08-06

IAcheson presented Mr.. McDer-
mott with the State Depart
ment's Superior Service Award
"a silver medal. The citation
accompanying 1t credited the re-
|cipient with organizing and
maintaining a relationship with
the press that has been of great
value to his Government in the
conduct of domestic foreign re-
Ilations
Mr.. McDermott met daily. ex-
Icept when the Secretary Of
State held a news conference.
with reporters in the State De-
Ipartment press room. After
hours, the telephones at his
home at 1855 Upshur street
INV. kept ringing with more
Questions from reporters. He
kept phone beside his bed,
lin his recreation room and in
his den, the last placed so that
Ihe could get to it through a
window when he was working
lin his garden. Growing roses
was a hobby of Mr.. McDer-
motifs,
The te-haired press at
tache claimed he had had a
snowy-thatch since he was a
hoy Of 10 when he saw a bolt
Iof lightning shoot through his
home in his native Peabody.
Mass. His parents had come to
Peabody from Ireland 10 years
before he was born.
Mr.. McDermott went to Bur-
dette College. Lynn. Mass, and
National University where he re-
Iceived law degrees. He was first
an insurance company clerk in
Boston, and in 1917 he joined
the Government as a clerk in
the War Department. After
World War / service as a conf
dental clerk at the Supreme
War Council in Paris. he entered
the State Department in 1920
Four years later he was made
assistant chief Of the old Cur
rent Information Division and
became division chief in 1927.
In 1914, after a departmental
reorganization, his title became
special assistant to the Secretary
|of State for press relations. The
Secretaries of State he had
served included Lansing, Colby,
Hughes. Kellogg, Stimson, Hull,
Stettinius, Byrnes. Marshall,
Acheson and Dulles.
Mr.. McDermott was represent
alive of Secretaries Hull and
Stettinius on the Committee on
War Information Policies from
1912 to l946 and during part of
that time was also a member of
the Committee on Political
Planning. He served on the de-
ipartment's Policy Committee
and the Committee on Postwar
Programs.
Active at DumbartOn Oaks
He participated in the early
efforts to avert World War II.
In 1914 he was active in the
IDumbarton Oaks Conversation
ON International Organization
and prepared draft Of the
charter later refined at San
Francisco.
Mr.. McDermott participated
in the first session of the Gen.
Ieral Assembly at London in
1916 and accompanied Secre-
ltary Hull to Moscow at a con-
ference pledged to restoration
iof the independence of Austria.
Survivors are his widow, the
former Rose Patricia Fuller,
whom he married in 1882; son.
Michael, jr.; a Jesuit novice at
IWarnersville, Pa. and a daugh-
ter, Patricia Frances, 10.
Also surviving are a brother
and sister. Roger McDermott
Peabody, Mass. and Mrs. Cor
nelius Buckley. Melrose, Mass.
| A requiem mass will be sung
at 10 am. Tuesday at st. Aloysius
Catholic Church. North Capitol
and I streets. The Rev. Edward
Fuller, S. j., the brother of Mrs
McDermott. will ofiiciate. His
body will be at the home after
10 pm. tomorrow. The place OF
burial has not been announced
IN A ~ n