Curtis D. Wilbur

Curtis Dwight Wilbur ( born May 10, 1867 Boone County, Iowa; † September 8, 1954 in San Francisco, California ) was an American lawyer and politician ( Republican), who belonged to the Cabinet of President Calvin Coolidge as Secretary of the Navy.

Wilbur was recorded in 1884 at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis (Maryland). Shortly after his graduation, he left the academy, which was not an unusual procedure at this time, and moved to Riverside in California. There he was admitted to the Bar Association of the State in 1890 and held as a result the post of deputy district prosecutor in Los Angeles. In 1903, he was then judge of the Superior Court in 1918 finally the Supreme Court of California, as the 19th Chief Justice ( Chief Justice ), he acted.

On March 19, 1924 Curtis Wilbur took the oath from the Secretary of the Navy. He was the first minister to the reigning since last year, President Coolidge appointed new in his cabinet, and was commonly referred to as man of high intellect and unassailable integrity. As Wilbur in March 1929 resigned together with the President of the Government, he could show a positive balance. So he had managed to increase the U.S. fleet and modernize. An important part were the naval aviation, which should become very important during the Second World War during the fighting between the U.S. and Japan.

Calvin Coolidge's successor in the presidency, Herbert Hoover, appointed Curtis Wilbur in 1929 a judge of the Federal Court of Appeals for the Ninth District Court in San Francisco. He held that post until 1945 when he retired.

Wilbur, who was married to Olive Doolittle and father of three children had died in 1954. Remembering their former minister, the Navy named the destroyer USS Curtis Wilbur after him. His brother Ray was 1929-1933 Secretary of the Interior under President Hoover.