William J . Donovan William Joseph ( " Wild Bill " ) Donovan ( January 1 , 1883 – February 8 , 1959 ) was a United States soldier , lawyer , intelligence officer and diplomat . Donovan is best remembered as the wartime head of the Office of Strategic Services ( OSS ) , a precursor to the Central Intelligence Agency , during World War II . He is also known as the " Father of American Intelligence " and the " Father of Central Intelligence " . A decorated veteran of World War I , General Donovan is the only person to have received the four highest awards in the United States : The Medal of Honor , the Distinguished Service Cross , the Distinguished Service Medal , and the National Security Medal . He is also a recipient of the Silver Star and Purple Heart , as well as an honorary British knighthood and decorations from several nations for his service during both World Wars . Biography . Early life . Of Irish descent , Donovan was born in Buffalo , New York to first generation immigrants Anna Letitia " Tish " Donovan ( née Lennon ) and Timothy P . Donovan , of Ulster and County Cork origins respectively . His grandfather Timothy O ' Donovan ( Sr . ) was from the town of Skibbereen , being raised there by an uncle , a parish priest , and married Donovan ' s grandmother Mary Mahoney , who belonged to a propertied family of substantial means which disapproved of him . They would move first to Canada and then to New York , where their son Timothy ( Jr . ) , Donovan ' s father , would attempt to engage in a political career , but with little success . William Joseph attended St . Joseph ' s Collegiate Institute and Niagara University before starring on the football team at Columbia University . On the field , he earned the nickname " Wild Bill " , which would remain with him for the rest of his life . Donovan graduated from Columbia in 1905 and was a member of the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity , as well as the Knights of Malta . Donovan was a graduate of Columbia Law School and became an influential Wall Street lawyer . In 1912 , Donovan formed and led a troop of cavalry of the New York State Militia . This unit was mobilized in 1916 and served on the U . S . - Mexico border during the American government ' s campaign against Pancho Villa . World War I . During World War I , Major Donovan organized and led the 1st battalion of the 165th Regiment of the 42nd Division , the federalized designation of the famed 69th New York Volunteers , ( the " Fighting 69th " ) . In France one of his aides was poet Joyce Kilmer , a fellow Columbia College alumnus . For his service near Landres - et - St . Georges , France , on 14 and 15 October 1918 , he received the Medal of Honor . By the end of the war he received a promotion to colonel , the Distinguished Service Cross and two Purple Heart s ( the full text of his Medal of Honor citation can be found further below ) . Between the wars . From 1922 to 1924 , he was US Attorney for the Western District of New York , famous for his energetic enforcement of Prohibition . In 1924 President Calvin Coolidge named Donovan to the United States Department of Justice ' s Antitrust Division as a deputy assistant to Attorney General Harry M . Daugherty . Donovan ran unsuccessfully as a Republican for Lieutenant Governor of New York in 1922 , and for Governor of New York in 1932 . Assisting Donovan in his 1932 campaign was journalist James J . Montague , who served as " personal adviser and campaign critic . " World War II . During the interwar years , Donovan traveled extensively in Europe and met with foreign leaders including Benito Mussolini of Italy . Donovan openly believed during this time that a second major European war was inevitable . His foreign experience and realism earned him the attention and friendship of President Franklin D . Roosevelt . The two men were from opposing political parties , but were similar in personality . Because of this , Roosevelt came to highly value Donovan ' s insights . Following Germany ' s invasion of Poland in September 1939 and the start of World War II in Europe , President Roosevelt began to put the United States on a war footing . This was a crisis of the sort that Donovan had predicted , and he sought out a responsible place in the wartime infrastructure . On the recommendation of Donovan ' s friend United States Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox , Roosevelt gave him a number of increasingly important assignments . In 1940 and 1941 , Donovan traveled as an informal emissary to Britain , where he was urged by Knox and Roosevelt to gauge Britain ' s ability to withstand Germany ' s aggression . During these trips , Donovan met with key officials in the British war effort , including Winston Churchill and the directors of Britain ' s intelligence services . Donovan returned to the US confident of Britain ' s chances and enamored with the possibility of founding an American intelligence service modeled on that of the British . OSS . On July 11 , 1941 , Donovan was named Coordinator of Information ( COI ) . America ' s foreign intelligence organizations at the time were fragmented and isolated from each other . The Army , Navy , Federal Bureau of Investigation ( FBI ) , United States Department of State , and other interests each ran their own intelligence operations , the results of which they were reluctant to share with the other departments . Donovan was the nominal director of this unwieldy system , but was plagued over the course of the next year with jurisdictional battles . Few of the leaders in the intelligence community were willing to part with any of the power that the current " ad hoc " system granted them . The FBI , for example , under the control of Donovan ' s rival J . Edgar Hoover , insisted on retaining its autonomy in South America . Nevertheless , Donovan began to lay the groundwork for a centralized intelligence program . It was he who organized the COI ' s New York headquarters in Room 3603 of Rockefeller Center in October , 1941 and asked Allen Dulles to head it ; the offices Dulles took over had been the location of the operations of Britain ' s MI6 . In 1942 , the COI became the Office of Strategic Services ( OSS ) and Donovan was returned to active duty in his World War I rank of colonel ( by war ' s end , he would be promoted to major general ) . Under his leadership the OSS would eventually conduct successful espionage and sabotage operations in Europe and parts of Asia , but continued to be kept out of South America as a result of Hoover ' s hostility to Donovan . In addition , the OSS was blocked from the Philippines by the antipathy of General Douglas MacArthur , the commander of the Southwest Pacific Theater . For many years the operations of the OSS remained secret , but in the 1970s and 1980s , significant parts of the OSS history were declassified and became public record . As World War II began to wind to a close in early 1945 , Donovan began to focus on preserving the OSS beyond the end of the war . After President Roosevelt ' s death in April , however , Donovan ' s political position , which had thrived because of his personal relationship to the President , was substantially weakened . Although he argued forcefully for the OSS ' s retention , he found himself opposed by numerous opponents , including President Harry S . Truman , who personally disliked Donovan , as well as J . Edgar Hoover , who viewed the OSS as competition for his goal to expand the FBI ' s investigative operations internationally . Public opinion turned against Donovan ' s efforts when conservative critics rallied against the intelligence service that they called an ' American Gestapo . ' After Truman disbanded the OSS in September 1945 , Donovan returned to civilian life . Various departments of the OSS survived the agency ' s dissolution , however , and less than two years later the Central Intelligence Agency was founded , a realization of Donovan ' s hopes for a centralized peacetime intelligence agency . Role in formation of the CIA . Donovan did not have an official role in the newly formed CIA but with his protégé Allen Dulles and others , he was instrumental in its formation . Having led the OSS during World War II , Donovan ’ s opinion was especially influential as to what kind of intelligence organization was needed as a bi - polar post - war world began to take shape . Although he was a force to be reckoned with , his idea for consolidating intelligence met with strong opposition from the State , War and Navy Departments and J . Edgar Hoover . President Truman was inclined to create an organization that would gather and disseminate foreign intelligence ; Donovan argued that the new agency should also be able to conduct covert action . Truman was unenthusiastic about this additional authority , but Donovan ' s arguments prevailed and were reflected in the National Security Act of 1947 and the Central Intelligence Agency Act of 1949 . In 1946 , Truman appointed Rear Admiral Sidney Souers , USNR , as the first Director of Central Intelligence . This was an important first step but the actual creation of the CIA required another persuasive voice , that of Hoyt Vandenberg . In 1947 Rear Admiral Roscoe H . Hillenkoetter was appointed as the first Director of the CIA . Post - war era . After the war ended , Donovan reverted to his lifelong role as a lawyer to perform one last duty : he served as special assistant to chief prosecutor Telford Taylor at several trials following the main Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal in Germany . There he had the personal satisfaction of seeing the Nazi leaders responsible for the torture and murder of captured OSS agents brought to justice . For his World War II service , Donovan received the Distinguished Service Medal , the highest American military decoration for outstanding non - combat service . He also received an honorary British knighthood . At the conclusion of the Nazi war criminal trials , Donovan returned to Wall Street and his highly successful law firm , Donovan , Leisure , Newton & Irvine . He remained always available to postwar Presidents who requested his advice on intelligence matters . In 1949 he became chairman of the newly founded American Committee on United Europe , which worked to counter the new Communist threat to Europe by promoting European political unity . In 1953 President Dwight Eisenhower appointed Donovan Ambassador to Thailand . He served in that capacity until his resignation in 1954 . Donovan ' s son , David Rumsey Donovan , was a naval officer who served with distinction in World War II . His grandson , William James Donovan , served as an enlisted soldier in Vietnam and is also buried at Arlington National Cemetery . Death and legacy . Donovan died from complications of vascular dementia on February 8 , 1959 , at Walter Reed Army Medical Center , in Washington , D . C . at the age of 76 , and is buried in Section 2 of Arlington National Cemetery . President Dwight D . Eisenhower referred to him as " the Last Hero " , which later became the title of a biography of him . After his death , Donovan was awarded the Freedom Award of the International Rescue Committee ( not , as some biographies state , the " Medal of Freedom " , a different award ) . The law firm he founded , Donovan , Leisure , Newton & Irvine was dissolved in 1998 . His home Chapel Hill near Berryville , Virginia , was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2004 . Major General Donovan is a member of the Military Intelligence Hall of Fame . Awards and decorations . U . S . awards Foreign awards Medal of Honor citation . Rank and organization : Lieutenant Colonel , U . S . Army , 165th Infantry , 42d Division . Place and date : Near Landres - et - St . Georges , France , 14 – 15 October 1918 . Entered service at : Buffalo , N . Y . Born : 1 January 1883 , Buffalo , N . Y . G . O . , No . : 56 , W . D . , 1922 . Citation : Lt . Col . Donovan personally led the assaulting wave in an attack upon a very strongly organized position , and when our troops were suffering heavy casualties he encouraged all near him by his example , moving among his men in exposed positions , reorganizing decimated platoons , and accompanying them forward in attacks . When he was wounded in the leg by machine - gun bullets , he refused to be evacuated and continued with his unit until it withdrew to a less exposed position .