Washington, March 22—North Carolina comes again to the fore today in Washington by the announcement of the detail of Lieutenant Colonel Clarence O. Sherrill, corps of engineers, a native of Newton, N.C., son of the late Col. Miles O. Sherrill, for many years state librarian of North Carolina, as a military aide to President Harding and in charge of public buildings and grounds of the District of Columbia, a position of great importance. He succeeds Major Clarence S. Riley, also of the corps of engineers, and as part of his duties will act as superintendent of the state war and navy buildings.
Colonel Sherrill was an active participant in the world war and made an enviable record.
Lieutenant Colonel Sherrill is about 45 years of age. He was a student at Trinity College for two years and then went to West Point, being an honor graduate of the United States Military Academy, class of 1901, an honor graduate of the army school of the line, class of 1906, and a graduate of the army war college, class of 1907. His wife was formerly Miss Geraldine Taylor of Leavenworth, Kansas, and they have two children, a son, Clarence Caldwell, aged 9, and a daughter Minnie, aged 5.
Commanded Engineer Regiment
He was in command of the 302d engineer regiment, which was awarded the Croix de Guerre with Palm by General Petain, for meritorious service under fire, to the French army. During the latter part of the Argonne offensive he was made chief of staff of the 17th (New York) division until after the armistice, when he was appointed a member of the commission under the third army to take over the governmental activities of the Germans in the occupied territory and to draw up the plans of the Coblenz bridgehead. In addition to varied engineering duties and command of troops in the Philippines and on the Panama Canal, Lieutenant Colonel Sherrill has had important river and harbor assignments at Mobile, Ala., and New Orleans, La. At the latter place he was in charge of the lower Mississippi levees during the great floods of 1912-1913.
He was on duty in this city as an aid to President Roosevelt and at Washington barracks during the years 1903-1904, following which he was aide de camp to General J. Franklin Bell for two years.
An Authority on Several Lines
Since his return from France following the armistice he has been on duty in the office of the chief of engineers, War Department, directing the construction of seacoast fortifications throughout the United States.
Lieutenant Colonel Sherrill has written several books on military subjects, which are rated as standard among military authorities. He is a member of the interdepartmental board of coordination of Alaskan affairs, interdepartmental board of coordination of the surveying and mapping under the government; of the government section of the national research council, and of the American Society of Civil Engineers.
From The Raleigh News and Observer, as reprinted in The Hickory Daily Record, March 24, 1921. The photo is from the Library of Congress collection, https://www.loc.gov/resource/npcc.03779/
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