John R. Galvin, who rose from an enlisted man to a highly decorated four-star general, never forgot his modest roots.
Known as the consummate soldier-scholar-statesman, Galvin went from an aspiring cartoonist to serve as NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander in Europe in the final five years of the Cold War.
During a career that spanned more than four decades, he influenced generations of soldiers and military officers, including retired general and former CIA director David Petraeus, who once served as his aide-de-camp at Fort Stewart near Savannah.
His compassion, humility and sense of fairness in shaping military policy gained him the lifelong loyalty of soldiers, the admiration of Free World allies and respect of Communist bloc adversaries.
Galvin died Sept. 25 at his Jonesboro home of complications related to Parkinson’s disease. He was 86. He will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.
As the last Cold War NATO leader from 1987 to 1992, Galvin witnessed the dissolution of the Soviet Union and was instrumental in shifting NATO’s post-Cold War strategy from a focus on bilateral defense to peacekeeping operations.
“He was a very quiet-spoken, superb leader without a hint of egotism,” said colleague and friend Dave Palmer, a former superintendent at West Point. “Sometimes soldier and diplomat don’t go together well. But he was effective at both. Everybody liked him and respected him – our allies and enemies. He was the perfect person to handle the situation in the Cold War.”
A highly sought-after speaker, Galvin also inspired countless cadets, colleagues and the international community as a college professor, award-winning historian and the author of dozens of articles and four books on history, strategy, military affairs and leadership.
His papers on counterinsurgency and guerilla warfare influenced Army actions in the Middle East after the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Born on May 13, 1929, in Melrose, Mass., he grew up in the neighboring town of Wakefield. His father was a plasterer and bricklayer. As a child, his mother kept him occupied by encouraging him to draw whatever he observed outside his window. She died when he was 9.
A cartoonist for his high school newspaper, Galvin considered cartooning as a career. To earn tuition money for art school, he enlisted in the Massachusetts National Guard in 1948 as a private, and was assigned to medic duty.
Two years later, a sergeant at the Guard encouraged him to attend the U.S. Military Academy at West Point where he drew cartoons for the campus paper and yearbook. He graduated in 1954, becoming the first in his family to earn a college degree, and later completed Army Ranger School.
In 1962, Galvin received a master’s degree from Columbia University and taught English at West Point before his deployment to Vietnam, where he earned medals for valor.
While in Vietnam he also became known for his outspoken defiance of combat orders he considered near suicidal and refusal of a commander’s directive to inflate the enemy casualty count.
“Integrity was important to him in battle, as everywhere else,” said his daughter Kathleen Galvin of Atlanta. “He was always concerned for his troops, and he wanted to attack from a position of advantage.”
He later helped write the Pentagon Papers account of U.S. involvement in Vietnam and was instrumental in restructuring the Army after the war.
“He always empathized with the lowliest private,” said Douglasville resident Bruce James, who was Galvin’s helicopter pilot in Vietnam in 1970. “Gen. Galvin always made you want to do the right thing. You never wanted to let him down.”
Galvin was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal, the Silver Star, the Legion of Merit and the Distinguished Flying Cross and was inducted into the U.S. Army Ranger Hall of Fame.
In November, he will be honored as an Outstanding Alumnus of the U.S. Army War College.
“He was thoughtful, insightful and skillful at dealing with people. In combat, he was brave beyond description,” said friend and former West Point teaching colleague Lewis “Bob” Sorley of Potomac, Md. “He loved soldiers and put his whole heart and soul into whatever mission he had.”
After retirement in 1992, Galvin taught national security at West Point, assisted with negotiations in Bosnia and served as dean of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University from 1995 to 2000 and then moved to Georgia.
Over the years he amassed thousands of note cards, scribbled with his reports and thoughts on life events, strategy sessions and meetings with world leaders. Those notes came in handy for his fourth book, “Fighting the Cold War: A Soldier’s Memoir,” which took him 20 years to finish and was published in April.
“He was a wonderful guy with a great sense of humor and was a great storyteller,” his daughter Kathleen said. “A lot of it is self-critical and self-reflection on what it takes to be a good leader and learning from mistakes. He was first and foremost a soldier.”
In addition to Kathleen, Galvin is survived by his wife Virginia Lee Galvin; daughters Mary Jo Schrade of Bellevue, Wash., Beth Galvin White of Decatur and Erin Scranton of Falls Church, Va.; his brother James Galvin of Stowe, Vt.; sister Nancy Galvin of Boston and five grandchildren.
