James Forrestal

James Vincent Forrestal was the last Cabinetlevel United States Secretary of the Navy and the first United States Secretary of Defense.

Forrestal was born in Matteawan, New York, , the youngest son of James Forrestal, an Irish immigrant who dabbled in politics. His mother, the former Mary Anne Toohey raised him as a devout Roman Catholic. He was an amateur boxer. After graduating from high school at the age of 16, in 1908, he spent the next three years working for a trio of newspapers the Matteawan Evening Journal, the Mount Vernon Argus and the Poughkeepsie News Press.

Source: Wikipedia