Talbott Supplied Tools for War

DAYTON DAILY NEWS, February 24, 1961

By MARY ELLEN LYNCH

Daily News Staff Writer

Twentieth of a Series

In World War I Nelson S. Talbott learned to fight with telephone poles instead of artillery and wagons instead of tanks. In World War II he directed the purchase of hundreds of millions of dollars of airplanes and equipment for the Allies.

The trainees at Ft. Benjamin Harrison were hard put for the tools of war in 1917. The men in World War II and Korea weren’t, and Talbott played a vital role in the mission to “keep ‘em flying.”

Talbott’s military career spanned 35 years before he retired as a brigadier general in 1952. Between wars he returned to inactive duty and earned a reputation as a business and financial leader whose interests ranged throughout the world.

TALBOTT MOVED into the national spotlight early. A big bruising tackle at Yale, he made the original Walter Camp All-America team in 1913—the only native Daytonian ever to achieve first string All-American honors. A senior that year, Talbott was also team captain.

From then on, his career was part military, part civilian.

In mufti, he became president of the Talbott Corp., which directed many of the interests of the Talbott family. He was director of Trans World Airlines and many other corporations and a vice president of the Maxon Construction Co., one of the largest firms of its kind in the world.

(After World War II Maxon and two other firms executed a multi-million dollar contract on Guam to erect island outposts for the Navy.)

Talbott married the former Elizabeth Green and the couple had three sons.

OVER THE YEARS he remained lean and trim, a sportsman who loved to hunt and play polo, who—20 years after his All-American days—was still a tournament squash and handball player.

“Bud” Talbott also organized and was the first coach of the old Dayton Triangles, a charter member of the National Football league.

Talbott’s only brother, Harold, (there were seven sisters in the family), was to become secretary of the Air Force under Dwight D. Eisenhower.

During World War I, Talbott saw duty overseas. Recalled as a lieutenant colonel in World War II, he served in key procurement spots at Wright-Patterson Air Force base and in Chicago and Detroit.

In 1944 he was in the national spotlight again as the man in charge when the government seized the strike-bound Montgomery Ward plant at Springfield, Ill.

TALBOTT RETURNED to inactive duty in 1954, was back in uniform in the Korean conflict, this time heading the Air Materiel Command’s six procurement districts throughout the nation.

On June 21, 1952, a formal military review—and presentation of the Legion of Merit—was scheduled at WPAFB marking Brig. Gen. Nelson S. Talbott’s retirement. Rain forced postponement of the ceremonies.

A month later the medal was awarded to Gen. Talbott posthumously.

At 60, he had died suddenly of a heart attack 16 days after his retirement from the Air Force.

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