{{infobox officeholder | name = | image =330-ps-9039-usn-710199 15641315399 o.jpg | caption =Norton (left) | office = Assistant Secretary of the Navy | term_start = July 7, 1956 | term_end = February 5, 1959 | predecessor = James H. Smith Jr. | successor = James H. Wakelin Jr.<br><small>(as Assistant Secretary of the Navy (Research and Development))</small> | birth_date = {{birth date|1900|10|09}} | birth_place = Chicago, Illinois | death_date = {{death date and age|1995|09|09|1900|10|09}} | death_place = | education = Groton School | alma_mater = Harvard College | party = Republican | parents = Charles D. Norton<br>Katherine McKim Garrison | spouse = {{marriage|Emily McMullan<br>|1943}} | children = 2 | relations = Wendell Phillips Garrison (grandfather)<br>Lucy McKim Garrison (grandmother)<br>Lloyd K. Garrison (cousin) }} '''Garrison Norton''' (October 9, 1900 &ndash; September 9, 1995) was Assistant Secretary of the Navy (AIR) from 1956 to 1959.

==Early life== [[File:William-Lloyd-Garrison-by-Jocelyn,-1833.jpg|thumb|right|1833 Portrait of his great-grandfather, William Lloyd Garrison, by Nathaniel Jocelyn which Norton bequeathed to the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution.]] Garrison Norton was born in Chicago on October 9, 1900, the son of banker Charles Dyer Norton and the former Katherine McKim Garrison.<ref name="GNObit1995"/><ref name="MrsNorton1948">{{cite news |title=MRS. NORTON, RELATED TO-ABOLITIONIST, 75 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1948/02/10/archives/mrs-norton-related-toabolitionist-75.html |access-date=2 December 2021 |work=The New York Times |date=10 February 1948}}</ref> His father was a "man of impeccable London tailoring and equally impeccable conservatism" who served as Assistant Secretary of the Treasury and Secretary to President Taft. Garrison, however, was described as "receptive to new ideas and as liberal as his father was conservative" even though he was also a Republican.<ref name="1957flyingaccountant"/>

His maternal grandparents were editor Wendell Phillips Garrison (a son of the Civil War abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison) and the poet Lucy McKim Garrison (a daughter of Presbyterian minister James Miller McKim and sister to architect Charles Follen McKim).<ref name="MrsNorton1948"/>

He was raised in Washington, D. C. and Manhattan and attended the Groton School. He was educated at Harvard College, receiving a bachelor's degree ''cum laude'' in 1923.<ref name="GNObit1995"/> While at Harvard, he was a member of the school's first 150-pound varsity crew team.<ref name="1957flyingaccountant"/>

==Career== After college, Norton joined the accounting firm of Arthur Young & Company. During this period, Norton became interested in aviation and received his Private Pilot License.<ref name="1957flyingaccountant">{{cite news |last1=Times |first1=Special to The New York |title=A Flying Accountant; Garrison Norton |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1957/12/17/archives/a-flying-accountant-garrison-norton.html |access-date=2 December 2021 |work=The New York Times |date=17 December 1957}}</ref> This brought him in contact with several figures in the aviation industry, some of whom became his clients. He was made a partner of Arthur Young & Company in 1932.<ref name="GNObit1995"/>

===Government service=== Norton first joined the government in 1934, when he became deputy general manager of the Home Owners' Loan Corporation. He later went on to serve as assistant to the chairman of the Civil Aeronautics Authority and director of the Office of Transport and Communications in the State Department.<ref name="GNObit1995"/>

With the outbreak of World War II, Norton enlisted in the United States Navy serving as a Navy flight instructor and with the Bureau of Aeronautics, ultimately attaining the rank of captain by the war's end in 1945. In 1947, President of the United States Harry S. Truman nominated Norton as an Assistant Secretary of State, with responsibility for international transportation and communications.<ref name="1947Aide">{{cite news |last1=TIMES |first1=Special to THE NEW YORK |title=PRESIDENT NAMES AN AIDE TO CLAYTON; Garrison Norton Is Nominated Assistant Secretary for Air, Ships, Communications |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1947/03/13/archives/president-names-an-aide-to-clayton-garrison-norton-is-nominated.html |access-date=2 December 2021 |work=The New York Times |date=13 March 1947}}</ref><ref name="1947Confirmation">{{cite news |title=Senate Confirms Garrison Norton |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1947/03/22/archives/senate-confirms-garrison-norton.html |access-date=2 December 2021 |work=The New York Times |date=22 March 1947}}</ref> He held this office until 1949.<ref name="GNstate">{{cite web |title=Garrison Norton - People - Department History - Office of the Historian |url=https://history.state.gov/departmenthistory/people/norton-garrison |website=history.state.gov |publisher=United States Department of State |access-date=2 December 2021}}</ref>

He served as a director of the Export-Import Bank and as an alternate governor of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund before leaving the State Department in 1949. In the early 1950s, he worked for Donald A. Quarles, the Secretary of the Air Force, in research and development.<ref name="GNWaPo1995"/> In 1956, President Dwight D. Eisenhower nominated Norton to succeed James H. Smith Jr. as Assistant Secretary of the Navy (AIR),<ref name="1956Aide">{{cite news |title=NAVY AIR AIDE NAMED; Garrison Norton Is Selected to Succeed J.H. Smith Jr. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1956/05/29/archives/navy-air-aide-named-garrison-norton-is-selected-to-succeed-jh-smith.html |access-date=2 December 2021 |work=The New York Times |date=29 May 1956}}</ref> and he would serve in this office from July 7, 1956, until February 5, 1959. His primary goal as Assistant Secretary of the Navy was with expanding the Navy's research and development capabilities. He was the last Assistant Secretary of the Navy (AIR), as the post was re-designated Assistant Secretary of the Navy (Research and Development) in 1959.<ref name="GNWaPo1995"/>

===Later life=== Norton left government in 1959, becoming president of the Institute for Defense Analyses, succeeding Gen. James McCormack, who became vice president of MIT.<ref name="1958ArmsStudy">{{cite news |last1=Times |first1=Special to The New York |title=ARMS STUDY AIDE SET; Garrison Norton to Be Head of Defense Analysis Unit |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1958/12/20/archives/arms-study-aide-set-garrison-norton-to-be-head-of-defense-analysis.html |access-date=2 December 2021 |work=The New York Times |date=20 December 1958}}</ref> He served as president until his retirement in the 1960s. He also went on to serve as chairman of the Carnegie Institution for Science.<ref name="GNWaPo1995">{{cite news |title=GARRISON NORTON, FEDERAL OFFICIAL, DIES |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1995/09/11/garrison-norton-federal-official-dies/59f5eef1-d603-42a7-b580-7f814e678750/ |access-date=2 December 2021 |newspaper=Washington Post |date=September 11, 1995}}</ref>

==Personal life== In 1943, Norton was married to Emily McMullan, who trained as a surgical nurse and served in World War II.<ref name="Reese2020"/> Together, they had a home in Georgetown and a farm in North Haven, Maine.<ref name="1957flyingaccountant"/> They were the parents of a son and daughter:<ref name="GNWaPo1995"/>

* Glenavie Norton, the Chair of Americans for Democratic Action in Southeast, Pennsylvania.<ref name="Reese2020">{{cite book |last1=Reese |first1=Thelma |last2=Kittredge |first2=B. J. |title=How Seniors are Saving the World: Retirement Activism to the Rescue! |date=2020 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=978-1-5381-2698-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Z3TTDwAAQBAJ |access-date=2 December 2021 |language=en}}</ref> * Charles Dyer Norton II (d. 1970)<ref name="GNWaPo1995"/>

He died on September 9, 1995, at the age of 94 in his home in Washington, D. C.<ref name="GNObit1995">{{cite news |last1=Pace |first1=Eric |title=Garrison Norton, 94, Assistant Secretary Of State and Navy |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1995/09/11/obituaries/garrison-norton-94-assistant-secretary-of-state-and-navy.html |access-date=2 December 2021 |work=The New York Times |date=11 September 1995}}</ref>

==References== {{reflist|30em}}

==External links== *[https://history.state.gov/departmenthistory/people/norton-garrison Garrison Norton (1900–1995)] at the Office of the Historian, Foreign Service Institute, United States Department of State

{{s-start}} {{s-gov}} {{succession box| before=James H. Smith Jr.| title=Assistant Secretary of the Navy (AIR)| after=James H. Wakelin Jr.<br>(as Assistant Secretary of the Navy (Research and Development))| years=July 7, 1956 &ndash; February 5, 1959 }} {{s-end}} {{USSecNavy}} {{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Norton, Garrison}} Category:1995 deaths Category:United States assistant secretaries of the navy Category:1900 births Category:Harvard College alumni Category:Groton School alumni