June 21, 1942 – March 8, 2018
Togo Dennis West, Jr. was the only child of Evelyn Carter West and Togo Dennis West, Sr. He was born and raised in Winston-Salem, North Carolina by his parents who were teachers in the public school system. They instilled in him a love of country and dedication to duty, which would later lead him to public service. He attended Howard University for undergraduate studies and also law school, where he met his wife, Gail Berry West.
Secretary West held senior positions in three presidential administrations. He served in the ad-ministration of President Gerald R. Ford as Associate Deputy Attorney General in the U.S. Department of Justice. In the administration of President Jimmy Carter, he was General Counsel of the Navy, later the Special Assistant to the Secretary and Deputy Secretary of Defense, and, thereafter, General Counsel of the Department of Defense. He served as the sixteenth Secretary of the Army under President Bill Clin-ton; and in the second Clinton administration he served in the President’s Cabinet as the third Secretary of Veterans Affairs. While Secretary of the Army, he also served as Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Panama Canal Commission.
Secretary West served on a number of governmental commissions and advisory committees. In 1982, he was appointed by Secretary of State George Schultz as one of a team of three lawyers from pri-vate practice to conduct an independent inquiry into the handling, by the governments of the United States and El Salvador, of the investigation and prosecution of the murders of four American Catholic church-women killed in El Salvador. Their report was submitted to the Secretary of State and to the Congress. In the spring of 2007, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates appointed Secretary West as co-chair of the In-dependent Review Group to Investigate and Report upon Rehabilitative Care and Processes at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and the National Naval Medical Center at Bethesda, Maryland. In the fall of 2009, he was asked to co-chair the Department of Defense Independent Review Related to Fort Hood, whose findings and recommendations were submitted to the Secretary of Defense for further review and implementation by DOD components. He has served as a member of the Defense Policy Board, and he previously served on the regional selection panels of the President’s Commission on White House Fel-lows.
Secretary West received the Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from Howard University in 1965, and in 1968, a degree in law from the same university, where he was Managing Editor of the Howard Law Journal, graduating cum laude and first in his class. He served as law clerk to Judge
Harold R. Tyler, Jr. of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Secretary West practiced law with Covington & Burling in Washington, D.C., from 1973 to 1975, from 1976 to 1977, and
from 2000 to 2004. In 1981, after a period of government service, he joined the New York law firm of Patterson, Belknap, Webb & Tyler as managing partner of its Washington office. In 1990, he became
Senior Vice President for Government Relations of the Northrop Corporation, and served until his ap-pointment as Secretary of the Army. From 2004-2006, he served as President and Chief Executive Of-ficer of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies. At the time of his death, he was Chairman of TLI Leadership Group, which he established in 2006 to support his professional and community activi-ties.
Secretary West was the Lead Director on the Board of Directors of Bristol-Myers Squibb and past Chairman of the Compensation, Management and Development Committee and he served on the Board of Directors of FuelCell Energy Inc. He served on the Board of Directors of MedStar Health. He was a member of the Senior Council of the Greater Washington Board of Trade and its former Chairman; past chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Washington Hospital Center; former Chairman of the National Capital Area Council of the Boy Scouts of America, and a member of the National Executive Committee of the Boy Scouts of America. He formerly served as Chairman of the Advisory Committee to George Washington’s Mount Vernon Estate. He was a member of the Board of Trustees of the Center for the Study of the Presidency, and of the Council on Foreign Relations. He served under two District of Co-lumbia Administrations as Chairman of the District of Columbia Board of Elections and Ethics. He served on the Board of Directors of Krispy Kreme Doughnut Corporation; he was a former Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Noblis Inc.
While a member of the Greater Washington Board of Trade, Mr. West also served as Chairman of its Legislative Bureau, and as Co-Chairman of the Board of Trade’s Task Force on Home Rule for the District of Columbia. He served as Chairman of the District of Columbia Law Revision Commission, to which he was twice appointed by the Council of the District of Columbia. He served as Chairman of the Blue Ribbon District of Columbia Committee on Public Education (COPE) and was a member of the Commission on Budget and Financial Priorities of the District of Columbia (the Rivlin Commission).
He served for six years as a member of the Legal Ethics Committee of the District of Columbia Bar, twice as Vice-Chairman of the Committee. He served on the Bar’s Special Committee on Model Rules of Professional conduct. He served as Chairman of the Litigation Screening Committee of the Na-tional Capital Area Affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union and was a member of the Board of Di-rectors of the National Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and of the Executive Committee of the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.
Mr. West was a former Chairman of the Kennedy Center Community and Friends Board and was a member of the Board of Trustees of the Shakespeare Theatre at the Folger; he served as a member of the Board of Trustees of the North Carolina School of the Arts; and he previously served as Chairman of the Trustees’ Council of the YMCA of Metropolitan Washington.
Mr. West served on the Standing Committee and the Finance Committee of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, the Board of the Protestant Episcopal Cathedral Foundation, and was a member of the Vestry, Junior Warden and Senior Warden of St. John’s Church in Lafayette Square. He served as Chair-man of the Search Committee for the Ninth Dean of the Washington National Cathedral.
Mr. West was a member of the District of Columbia Bar, the New York Bar, the United States Su-preme Court Bar, the U.S. Claims Court Bar, the U.S. Court of Military Appeals Bar, and the bars of sev-eral other federal courts. He served as a member of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals on Admis-sions. He served as a member of the Board of Directors of the D.C. Law Students in Court Program. He was a member of the Board of Visitors of the Wake Forest University School of Law and was a member of the Board of Governors of the School of Law of Antioch University. He served as a member of the ad-junct faculty of the Duke University School of Law.
Secretary West was commissioned a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army Field Artillery Corps and served on active military duty in the Army’s Judge Advocate General Corps, attaining the rank of Cap-tain. For his military service, he was awarded the Legion of Merit and the Meritorious Service Medal, and for his public service, he has received decorations for distinguished service from the Departments of Defense, Army, Air Force, Navy, and Veterans Affairs. The Boy Scouts of America have designated him a Distinguished Eagle Scout and have awarded him the Silver Buffalo and Silver Beaver Awards for his national contributions to America’s youth. He has received numerous awards from veterans, military, and community organizations; has been awarded the degree Doctor of Laws by Gannon University and Win-ston-Salem State University; has been designated a Hedrick Fellow by the United States Coast Guard Academy; and has been awarded the Alumni Achievement Award for Distinguished Postgraduate Achievement in the fields of law and public policy by his alma mater, Howard University.
Secretary West was a member of St. John’s Church, Lafayette Square, where he served as senior warden, member of the standing committee of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, and of the Board of Directors of the Protestant Episcopal Cathedral Foundation. He was recently appointed Chairman of the Washington National Cathedral Veterans Advisory Council.
Togo Dennis West, Jr. died suddenly of a heart attack on March 8, 2018. He is survived by his wife of 51 years, Gail Berry West; daughters Tiffany West Smink (Dan) and Hilary Carter West; and grandchildren Jackson West Smink and Natalie Berry Smink.
Funeral services will be held at Washington National Cathedral on Tuesday, April 24, 2018 at 2:00 pm. Burial will take place at Arlington National Cemetery with full military honors on Thursday, April 26, 2018.
In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to MedStar Health Foundation, 10980 Grantchester Way, 8th Floor, Columbia, Maryland 21044.
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