Herbert C . Holdridge Herbert Charles Holdridge ( 1892 – 1974 ) was an American military officer , who was best known for being the only United States Army General to retire during World War II , and for having several times sought presidential nominations on fringe party tickets after retirement . He was the father of diplomat John H . Holdridge and the adoptive father of actress Cheryl Holdridge . Biography . Early life . Holdridge was born Herbert Charles Heitke on March 6 , 1892 , in Wyandotte , Michigan . His parents were German immigrants Emil Heitke and Ida Petzke , who came to the United States in 1881 . Herbert Heitke grew up on the family farm , along with his four brothers and three sisters . He was able to secure an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point , and graduated with the class of 1917 . While at West Point , he legally changed his surname to " Holdridge " , a move precipitated by the rising anti - German sentiment in America during its entry into World War I . Upon graduation , he married Marie Gunther ( 1896 – 1981 ) , a New York factory worker ' s daughter . Military career . Holdridge was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the U . S . Army in 1917 , and assigned to the Quartermaster Corps of the Army ' s Reserve ( II Corps ) at Camp Gordon , Georgia . He was promoted to First Lieutenant by 1920 , and made Captain two years later , at which time he was assigned to duty with Headquarters Army Trains , with the First United States Army in New York City . This move reunited him with his wife , who had remained behind in New York after his posting to Georgia , and led to the birth in 1924 of their only child , John H . Holdridge . By 1925 Holdridge had transferred to the Cavalry , while still assigned to the Reserve Corps in New York . He was later appointed as Assistant Professor of History and Social Sciences at West Point , and also taught summer sessions at Columbia University during 1928 . Before 1930 , Holdridge had been transferred to the Army ' s Cavalry School at Fort Riley , Kansas , his wife and son this time accompanying him . Holdridge would remain with Training Commands for the rest of his Army career . He was promoted to Colonel and headed the Plans Training Division of the Adjutant General ' s Department at the onset of World War II , and was assigned as Commandant of the Adjutant General School at Fort Washington , Maryland , on January 19 , 1942 . He also became Director , Schools Training , Army Administration Schools , and was promoted to Brigadier General in early 1942 . In this position Holdridge was responsible for implementing the opening of Officer Candidate School s at colleges around the country , to provide twelve - week courses of instruction for the massive increase in the US Army ' s officer corps during 1942 - 1944 . Holdridge saw that many of these schools were opened at smaller public and private colleges and universities that had been hard hit by loss of students to military service , helping to ensure their financial viability during the war years . For his efforts , he was awarded a Doctor of Laws degree by Grinnell College on January 24 , 1943 . Controversy . In May 1944 , Holdridge became the only US general officer to retire during the country ' s greatest military conflict . The reasons for this early retirement are not known . Speculation has centered on his later political actions ; among his relatives it was rumored that he was denied permission to publish a book of economic theories and chose to retire . However , it is also possible that events in his personal life ( see below ) may have led to his early retirement . Political career . Within six months of having retired , Holdridge gave a speech at a Socialist Party meeting in New York City , decrying the ideas of the two presidential contenders , Franklin D . Roosevelt and Thomas E . Dewey . Holdridge was quoted as saying : In electing Dewey , instead of Roosevelt , you don ' t change horses in the middle of the stream , you merely change jockeys of the same old capitalistic horse , both competing for the privilege of leading the country into Fascism . Unexpected as this opinion might be coming from a recently retired general , it at least expressed a fairly orthodox Socialist position . From this point on , however , Holdridge ' s public statements would become increasingly unorthodox and inconsistent , reflecting no coherent ideological basis . Opposition to mental health reform and the Roman Catholic Church , commitment to pacifism , and championship of returning Native American tribes to government by traditional chieftains , were among the few positions that he did hold consistently over the years . 1948 presidential election . Notwithstanding his support for the Socialist ticket in 1944 , Holdridge put himself forth as a candidate for the Democratic Party presidential nomination in 1948 . His candidacy was brought to an abrupt halt over a lawsuit Holdridge filed against then Representative John E . Rankin ( D ) of Mississippi . Holdridge filed for defamation of character , claiming Rankin had slandered him in comments made to a reporter in a Congressional cloakroom during 1946 . A Federal District judge ruled against Holdridge , saying that such a conversation , in person , and within the Capitol building , was immune to lawsuit . 1952 presidential election . In February 1952 Holdridge was selected as the provisional presidential candidate for the " American Rally for Peace , Abundance and the Constitution " AKA the American Rally Party , a splinter group that was seeking to take - over the Democratic nominating convention later that summer . Three months later , Holdridge was also lobbying to be selected as the candidate for President on the American Vegetarian Party ticket . Holdridge , as reported in the press , promised : In the White House , I would obtain the best vegetarian chef in the country to cook such delicious vegetarian meals that guests would wonder why they ever thought meat edible . At the Democratic Convention in July 1952 , Holdridge , now a California resident , sought to contest that state ' s pledging of delegates to Estes Kefauver . His attempt to replace twenty of the Kefauver delegates with his own Rally group was turned aside , the convention perhaps being alarmed by Holdridge ' s pledge to elevate the Department of Commerce to a branch of government in itself , equal to the executive , legislative , and judicial branches . The American Vegetarian Party also rejected Holdridge , instead nominating Daniel J . Murphy for President in 1952 . 1956 presidential election . Embittered by his double rejection , Holdridge himself resigned from the American Rally on November 5 , 1952 , claiming that it was being devoted to " Marxist principles " . He returned to California and started " The Holdridge Foundation " out of his home in Sherman Oaks . In 1953 , he used donations to it to publish his book of political allegory , " The Fables of Moronia " . Later that year , he announced to reporters that he wanted to talk to American GI ' s held by the North Koreans , who had refused repatriation , and that he had written to his old classmate , then President Dwight D . Eisenhower , about it . This was one of the earliest of what would soon become a Holdridge trademark event ; writing a public letter to a well - known figure about a controversial issue , then calling a press conference about it . In 1955 , Holdridge again sought a nomination , this time as a vice - presidential candidate for the Prohibition Party . Placed on the ticket in September 1955 , with law professor Enoch A . Holtwick as the nominee for president , Holdridge was replaced in August 1956 by Edwin M . Cooper , after Holdridge distributed virulently anti - Eisenhower pamphlets on the floor of the Republican Party nominating convention . Holdridge punctuated his non - election year with a fracas at a House Un - American Activities Committee hearing held in Los Angeles on December 7 , 1956 . Representative Clyde Doyle , a California Democrat , had Holdridge ejected from the building by a Federal Marshal after the two exchanged heated personal insults during the hearing . Later life . Despite having failed to secure a presidential nomination from even minor national parties in three different elections over a dozen years , Holdridge would always claim to have been nominated by the Vegetarians and the Prohibitionists , an achievement of such ephemeral value that no reporter ever questioned it . After 1956 he never again sought a nomination from established political parties . Instead , he devoted his efforts to nascent movements designed to empower American Indians , and to anti - Catholic propaganda against the 1960 presidential campaign of John F . Kennedy . Holdridge founded the " Minute Men for the Constitution " in 1957 , which published two newsletters but did little else . In 1960 he established the " Constitutional Provisional Government of the United States " , which claimed the Hopi Indians were still a sovereign nation , since they had never signed a peace treaty with the United States . Holdridge apparently appointed himself to represent the Hopi in this matter , without actually attracting any members of that tribe to his organization . Holdridge and his first wife Marie had divorced in the 1940s . He then married a former dancer named Julie Phelps ( 19 October 1908 – 24 October 2003 ) , and adopted her daughter Cheryl . His political activities and incessant writing of public letters to newspapers and elected officials would prove a minor embarrassment to his stepdaughter ' s acting career . Meanwhile his son , John H . Holdridge , pursued a diplomatic career . By the early 1960s Holdridge had become estranged from his second wife and their daughter . Holdridge was not invited to the latter ' s wedding to Woolworth heir Lance Reventlow in November 1964 , and shortly thereafter , moved to Toledo , Ohio . His principal occupation during the last years of his life was in attempting to keep alive his Hopi government project , which was rendered futile by his inability to attract either funding or supporters . Holdridge died at the Veteran ' s Administration Hospital in Brecksville , Ohio , on September 29 , 1974 .