Edwin " Pa " Watson Edwin Martin " Pa " Watson ( 10 December 1883 – 20 February 1945 ) was a United States Army Major General , friend and a senior aide to President Franklin D . Roosevelt , serving both as a military advisor and Appointments secretary ( a role that is now encompassed under the duties of the modern - day White House Chief of Staff ) . Early life . Edwin M . Watson was born on December 10 , 1883 in Eufaula , Alabama . He was raised in Virginia , the son of a businessman in the tobacco industry . Military Service . He attended the United States Military Academy at West Point , among contemporaries George S . Patton and Jonathan Wainwright . Watson entered with the Class of 1906 on June 16 , 1902 , but was discharged for a deficiency in mathematics on April 9 , 1903 . He was readmitted as a plebe on August 23 , 1903 , but resigned in the middle of his third class year on December 29 , 1904 . He re - entered the Academy as a member of the third class in August 1905 and graduated in the Class of 1908 . His classmates gave him the nickname " Pa " for his precociously parental ways and wisdom . He was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Infantry . He served overseas twice , in the Philippines and Mexico , before being transferred back to the United States in 1915 . There , he gained his first experience with Presidential service , acting as a junior military aide to President Woodrow Wilson . Shortly after America ’ s entry into the First World War in April 1917 , Watson requested an active duty assignment with the American Expeditionary Force heading for the front in France . He served there for the remainder of the war , earning the U . S . Army Silver Star and the Croix de Guerre from the French government . He remained in France for the Paris Peace Conference to write the Treaty of Versailles to formally end the First World War . There , he again worked for the adoption of President Woodrow Wilson ’ s Fourteen Points to guide the post - war world . Association with FDR . He would continue this pattern of service until becoming Senior Military Aide to the newly inaugurated President Franklin D . Roosevelt in 1933 . He helped FDR navigate the bureaucracy of the War Department and the Army , especially during the crucial years prior to America ’ s entry into the Second World War . He was also appointed the President ' s Appointments secretary in 1938 after the previous secretary Marvin H . McIntyre ' s illness prevented him from continuing with his duties , managing access to the President and dictating the tenor of his daily schedule . Watson lived with his wife , professional pianist Frances Nash Watson , on a Virginia estate called Kenwood . The land , just beyond Monticello , was once owned by Thomas Jefferson , and the estate house was designed by FDR ' s cousin , celebrated architect William A . Delano . Watson and FDR were personally close above and beyond their close professional ties , and FDR adopted Kenwood as his " Camp David " during his presidency and retreated there on several occasions for vacation . The guest cottage was built in 1940 - 41 for Roosevelt , though he stayed there on only one occasion , preferring the social activity of the main house . On subsequent visits , including four days in June 1944 while awaiting the Normandy invasion , he slept in the front bedroom of the main house . Mrs . Watson later bequeathed Kenwood to the University of Virginia , which in turn has leased the property to the Thomas Jefferson Foundation . Watson and FDR ' s son James , were the ones who enabled Roosevelt to stand and to walk on the occasions when he did . Roosevelt had to wear steel braces . Watson and James , on those occasions would support him on his left arm . By virtue of his proximity to the President , Watson was present at some of the defining moments of the Second World War . These included FDR ’ s agreement to the Atlantic Charter alongside British Prime Minister Winston Churchill , providing a framework for that values that would guide the post - war world . He was in constant contact with Generals Dwight D . Eisenhower and Douglas MacArthur and Admiral Nimitz . He attended the Teheran Conference where the first of the negotiations between FDR , Churchill , and Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin took place . Although in poor health , he attended the Yalta Conference in February 1945 as well , where the Big Three negotiated for the future of Europe . On the return voyage , he suffered a fatal cerebral hemorrhage and died at sea . General Watson was buried with full military honors in Arlington Cemetery with the President in attendance . The President himself died two months later in April . The War Department , in recognition of his service , posthumously awarded him the Distinguished Service Medal , which was presented by President Harry Truman and Eleanor Roosevelt to his widow Frances Nash Watson .