https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmis9G9xvcY

he also named the F/A-18 Hornet (he named it Hornet, not F/A-18):

J. William Middendorf II, 81, Dies; Navy Secretary and Musical Diplomat

A G.O.P. fund-raiser, he was the Navy chief under Gerald R. Ford and held ambassadorships in the 1970s and ’80s. He gained notice for his classical music compositions.

J. William Middendorf II, a Republican fund-raiser who was President Gerald R. Ford’s secretary of the Navy and later a frequently appointed ambassador known for composing classical music works that struck a diplomatic tone, died on Friday in Fall River, Mass. He was 101.

His daughter Dr. Amy Givler confirmed the death, at a hospital. He lived in Little Compton, R.I.

A champion of right-wing Cold War causes, Mr. Middendorf was treasurer of the Republican National Committee and of Barry M. Goldwater’s 1964 campaign for the presidency, a landslide loss for the Arizona senator that nonetheless laid the foundations for America’s conservative ascendancy in succeeding decades.

Neither a political strategist nor a White House insider, Mr. Middendorf, an investment banker, raised millions for presidential races and was duly rewarded. He was Richard M. Nixon’s ambassador to the Netherlands from 1969 to 1973; Ronald Reagan’s representative, with ambassadorial rank, to the Organization of American States from 1981 to 1985; and Reagan’s ambassador to the European Community, later called the European Union, from 1985 to 1987.

As Navy secretary from 1974 to 1977, Mr. Middendorf pursued the development of the Ohio-class submarine and its companion Trident ballistic missile, the Aegis surface-launched missile system, and the F/A-18 carrier-based fighter attack aircraft, which he named the Hornet after a Revolutionary War ship given to the Navy by an ancestor, a merchant-shipping owner.

In his international travels and diplomatic assignments, he acquired a reputation as a composer of classical music, including an opera, “King Richard,” and of military marches. One of his eight symphonies, “The Holland,” was written while he was the envoy to the Netherlands; it was presented to Queen Juliana to mark her 25th anniversary on the throne and was performed on Dutch national television.

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As Navy secretary, Mr. Middendorf composed scores of “American spirit” marches for Navy and Marine Corps bands, including “Old Ironsides.” He wrote “Thumbs Up, America,” for Reagan’s first inauguration in 1981. As O.A.S. ambassador, he wrote 17 anthems dedicated to Mexico, Belize, Trinidad, Guatemala, Venezuela, Brazil and other countries. And in his tenure at the European Community, he wrote “Overture for a United Europe.”

In his travels, he also acquired collections of American prints and European artworks, many of which he donated to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Both museums appointed him as an adviser to their trustees and curators.

And he was an author, writing “A Glorious Disaster: Barry Goldwater’s Presidential Campaign and the Origins of the Conservative Movement” (2006); a memoir, “Potomac Fever” (2011); “The Great Nightfall: How We Win the New Cold War” (2020); and a second memoir, “On My 100-Year Watch: Tyrants and Patriots” (2024, with Kenneth R. Dooley).

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John William Middendorf II, who never used his first name and who was known as Bill to friends, was born in Baltimore on Sept. 22, 1924, one of four children of Harry Stump Middendorf, an investment banker, and Sarah (Boone) Middendorf. He and his siblings, Henry, Kennedy and Sarah, grew up with stories that traced family histories to before the Revolutionary War.

John attended the Gilman School in Baltimore and Harvard University. But after the United States entered World War II, he transferred to the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass., and enrolled in the Navy’s V-12 College Training Program, which was established to increase the number of commissioned officers available for wartime service. He received his commission and Bachelor of Naval Science degree simultaneously in 1945. He went on to active duty as the war drew to a close and was discharged in 1946.

Returning to Harvard, he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1947. He married Isabelle Paine in 1953 and was awarded a master’s degree in business by New York University the next year. His wife died in 2016.

In addition to his daughter Dr. Givler, Mr. Middendorf is survived by another daughter, Frances Middendorf; a son, Ralph; seven grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren. His daughter Martha Middendorf died in 1979; another son, John, died in 2024.

After several years in investment banking, Mr. Middendorf co-founded the Wall Street firm of Middendorf, Colgate and Company in 1962. He joined the Goldwater campaign that year, later rising to treasurer, as he embraced the candidate’s tough fiscal conservatism and fervent anti-Communism.

After Mr. Goldwater’s crushing defeat by President Lyndon B. Johnson, Mr. Middendorf returned to Wall Street but remained treasurer of the Republican Party. He became an important fund-raiser for Nixon’s successful 1968 campaign for the White House. As ambassador to the Netherlands, he promoted international trade and studied musical composition and orchestral conducting.

Mr. Middendorf regarded his tenure as secretary of the Navy as a high point of his career. After Jimmy Carter defeated President Ford in 1976, Mr. Middendorf returned to Wall Street once more, as president and chief executive of Financial General Bankshares.

With Reagan’s election in 1980, he led a transition team study of the Central Intelligence Agency that recommended major changes, emphasizing enhanced covert activities abroad and greater attention to counterintelligence, to combat what the C.I.A. called a growing threat of Soviet espionage and international terrorism.

Mr. Middendorf’s service as ambassador to the Organization of American States coincided with several armed conflicts, including the prolonged war between the leftist Sandinista government of Nicaragua against contra rebels, who had covert American support; Argentina’s war with Britain over the Falkland Islands in 1982; and the United States-led invasion of Grenada in 1983 to suppress a revolutionary regime.

He was chairman of Middendorf & Associates from 1989 until his retirement in 1994. For many years he was also a trustee of the Heritage Foundation, the conservative research group based in Washington, and a leader of dozens of civic, cultural and conservative political organizations.

In 2022, the Navy authorized the construction of a guided-missile destroyer to be named the U.S.S. J. William Middendorf.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/24/us/politics/j-william-middendorf-ii-dead.html

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5789781&forum_id=2/en-en/#49374561)