Bigelow, Emerson

Description

Emerson Bigelow

Emerson Bigelow was born on January 26, 1896, in New York City, New York, to Isabella Mary Lyall, age 32, and Charles Emerson Bigelow, age 44. In Rye his family lived on Highland Road.

He married Marian Thatcher Feustman on October 25, 1917, in New York. They had two children during their marriage.

Emerson Bigelow lived on Highland Road and served in both WWI and WWII, in the former as an Ensign in the Navy and in the latter in the Office of Strategic Services.

The Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was an intelligence agency of the United States during World War II. The OSS was formed as an agency of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) to coordinate espionage activities behind enemy lines for all branches of the United States Armed Forces. Other OSS functions included the use of propaganda, subversion, and post-war planning.

Emerson is considered one of the founding fathers of the O. S. S. He was an expert in financial matters and declassified documents indicate that he traced Nazi gold to Switzerland and the Vatican for safekeeping.

Emerson was in charge of financial reports for both the secret and nonsecret operations of the Office of Strategic Services in the Second World War.

He was associated with the Central Intelligence Agency, until 1948, and then served as a consultant to the office of the Secretary of Defense until he retired in 1958.

Emerson Bigelow, an expert on foreign exchange for the Office of Strategic Services and a former financial consultant to the State Department, in Washington, died on January 11, 1966, in Washington, District of Columbia, at the age of 69, and was buried in Arlington, Virginia.