ROBERT J. FLEMING

Robert J. Fleming was born at Fort Robinson, Nebraska on January 13, 1907 Son of Robert John and Augusta Fleming. He graduated from the Military Academy at West Point United States in 1928 and earned his Masters in Mechanical Engineering from MIT in 1931 and graduated from the School of Engineers of the Army of the United States in 1935 In 1936, he married Eleanor Marion Canby.

At the beginning of World War II, he worked in the area of ​​the Central Pacific. Fleming was supervisor of the construction program of the Army of Occupation of the United States when the war ended. From 1947 to 1950 he worked in the Office of the Chief Engineer in Washington, first as Chief, Division of Organization and Training of Engineers and later as Chief Engineer of Military Operations Assistant.

From 1950 to 1951 Fleming was a student of the National War College in Washington from 1951 to 1954 and was Engineer of the Army Field Forces at Fort Monroe, Virginia. During 1954 he was District Engineer in Philadelphia, then served until April 1954 as Divisional Engineer in the Division of New England before returning for a period of three years from France.

Fleming was appointed by President Kennedy, Governor of the Canal Zone to Panama on January 4, 1962, where he worked until January 31, 1967 when he retired, then worked as Executive Vice President of the company Anderson Nichols, in Boston, Massachusetts.

Governor Fleming was awarded the Legion of Merit Medal Bronze Star Medal, Army Commendation of the Order of the White Lion (Czechoslovakia), officer Legion of Honor (France), and the Grand Cross of Vasco Nunez de Balboa (Panama).

As Governor of the Panama Canal Zone, Fleming had to confront one of the most sensitive aspects of relations between the United States and Panama; the events of January 9, 1964, when Panamanian students tried to hoist the flag of Panama in Balboa High School, producing more than 24 dead. Under his tenure, the Thatcher Bridge was inaugurated on October 12, 1962; Channel the first newspaper was published on June 20, 1962 and 1964, Isthmian Canal studies were initiated with the purpose of increasing the capacity of the Canal. Fleming died on July 14, 1984.