Building Leaders the West Point Way: Ten Principles from the Nation's Most Powerful Leadership Lab
Joseph P. Franklingraduated from West Point in 1955 with a commission in the US Army Corps of Engineers. He earned master's degrees in civil engineering and nuclear engineering from MIT, taught the first nuclear engineering course at West Point, commanded a combat engineer battalion in Vietnam, and worked as executive assistant to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the Pentagon. Franklin was commandant of cadets at West Point from 1979 to 1982. After his promotion to major general, he served as chief of the Joint US Military Group and senior US defense representative in Spain. In 1993 he was elected chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Frequency Electronics and is presently on the board of directors of RKO Pictures, Inc.  In 2007, Franklin received West Point's Distinguished Graduate award, noting his outstanding career and fine example of the Academy'sDuty, Honor, Countrymotto. Franklin and his wife, Constance Marie Smith, have four sons and eight grandchildren.