Harold E . Talbott Harold Elstner Talbott , Jr . was the third United States Secretary of the Air Force . Biography . He was born in Dayton , Ohio , in March 1888 and died in 1957 . He attended The Hill School in Pottstown , Pennsylvania , and spent two years at Yale University before returning to his father ' s construction company in 1911 . Family . Talbott ' s father was a wealthy engineer who was involved in the construction of the Soo Locks on Lake Superior and had various railroad and paper milling interests . Talbott Sr . was the first mayor of Oakwood Ohio . He was also involved in the recovery of Dayton from the 1913 flood . He served as the director of the City National Bank of Dayton . His mother was active in the Dayton anti - suffrage league which opposed giving women the right to vote . She was also involved in the Anti - Saloon League and was a patron of the Dayton Westminster Choir . His brother Nelson " Bud " Talbott was the coach for the Dayton Triangles professional football team a predecessor to today ' s Indianapolis Colts . His great - nephew Strobe Talbott was a deputy secretary of state in the Clinton administration . In 1925 Talbott married Margaret Thayer ( 1898 – 1960 ) who was the daughter of Marian Longstreth Morris Thayer a survivor of the RMS Titanic Disaster and John Thayer II a railroad executive who perished aboard the ship . Harold and Margaret ' s children included Margaret Noyes , Pauline Toland , John Thayer Talbott , and H . E . Talbott III . In 1960 his wife ( Margaret Thayer ) committed suicide by jumping from the 12th story of their Fifth Avenue apartment in New York City . During World War II , the Runnymede Playhouse on the Talbott family estate in a residential neighborhood of Oakwood , Montgomery County , Ohio ( a suburb of Dayton ) hosted the Dayton Project ( the part of the Manhattan Project involved in creating the neutron generating triggers for the first atomic bomb s from radioactive polonium ) . Charles Allen Thomas a Delco - GM and Monsanto Company chemist who was in charge of the project was married to Harold ' s sister Margaret . Career . Talbott ' s interest in aviation dated from the early days of the Wright brothers . He was a pupil of Katharine Wright and a customer of the Wright ' s bicycle shop . In 1915 Talbott helped build one of the first wind tunnels for aviation experiments in Dayton . In the spring of 1916 , his father , Edward A . Deeds , and Charles Kettering formed the Dayton - Wright Airplane Company , which reused the factory buildings of the 1909 - 1916 Wright Company but was a completely different business . The young Talbott became the company ' s president , while Orville Wright received a courtesy position as a consulting engineer . Talbott was a passenger on Orville ' s last flight in 1918 . At the beginning of World War I , Deeds joined the US Army with the rank of colonel and became Chief of Aircraft Production . Deeds supervised aircraft aircraft procurement at McCook Field , a precursor to Wright - Patterson Air Force Base . The Dayton - Wright Company took over the newly built Delco - Light plant . The expanded plant turned out about 400 training planes and constructed the two - seat fighter , the DeHaviland – 4 , later modified to the DeHaviland – 9 . In 1918 the plant , which employed 12 , 000 people , produced 38 planes per day and manufactured more wartime aircraft overall than any other U . S . plant . During September 1918 , Talbott was commissioned a major in the Air Service of the Signal Corps . His assignment as one of a group of officers in charge of aircraft maintenance and repair in France was canceled by the armistice . In October 1918 Supreme Court Justice Charles Evans Hughes and Attorney General Thomas Watt Gregory reported to President Wilson on the results of an investigation into wartime aircraft production . Justice Hughes criticized the close relationship between Colonel Deeds and Dayton - Wright . Hughes specifically mentioned improper communications between Deeds and Harold Talbott regarding matters effecting aircraft procurement . Justice Hughes recommended Colonel Deeds be court - martialed but the Army did not pursue the case . In 1919 General Motors acquired DELCO - Light , Dayton - Wright , and the Dayton Metal Products Company . All were businesses associated with Talbott , Deeds , and Kettering . In 1922 GM established the Inland Manufacturing Division to build wooden steering wheels at the former Dayton - Wright plant . Talbott served as president of Inland . In 1925 Talbott moved to New York and became a dirrector of Chrysler Corporation . General Motors Corporation took a controlling interest in North American Aviation and merged it with its General Aviation division in 1933 . In 1932 Talbott became chairman of the executive committee of NAA . In the 1930s he was also a director of TWA . At the time North American held shares in Douglas Aircraft Company which was building military aircraft . Talbott prevailed on Donald Douglas to enter the commercial market by building the DC - 1 and DC - 2 aircraft to TWA ' s specification . Talbott was an active Republican presidential campaign fund - raiser in 1940 , 1948 and 1952 . He was chairman of the Republican national finance committee in 1948 and 1949 . He also had been a member of the War Production Board during 1942 and 1943 . He became the third Secretary of the Air Force on February 4 , 1953 , during a period when the Korean War had jolted Congress into authorizing additional wings and their supporting infrastructure . Consequently , he was able to focus his efforts on the needs of airmen and their families . He succeeded in obtaining more military housing than had his predecessors . Combining better housing with pay increases and other needed improvements , he raised the service personnel retention rate by linking enhanced military benefits to reenlistment . In September 1953 Talbott famously confronted Howard Hughes regarding his management of AIM - 4 Falcon project . As a result ICBM development for the airforce transitioned to the Ramo - Wooldridge Corp ( later TRW Inc . ) . During his tenure , Talbott appointed a commission to assist him in selecting the permanent site for the Air Force Academy . After considering 580 proposed sites in 45 states , the commission recommended three locations . From those , he selected the site near Colorado Springs . In 1955 , the Chattanooga Times uncovered that Talbott was using Air Force stationary to solicit business for an engineering firm which he owned fifty percent of , from contractors who sold to the Air Force . After a Congressional investigation , Talbott resigned from his position as Secretary in August 1955 . It is possible that the Talbott Cluster in Cleveland native David Weber ' s science fiction writings is named for Harold E . Talbott Jr . Since David Weber ' s books , especially those set in the Honorverse , frequently criticize interference by politicians in military matters . Talbott died of a cerebral hemorrhage in Palm Beach , Florida , on March 2 , 1957 .