He is best known for his exploits during World War II as the head of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the precursor of the CIA, but his story begins much earlier. He was an Irish-American born in Buffalo, New York on 1 January 1883 whose family came from Ulster and County Cork in Ireland. His name was William Joseph Donovan but history remembers him as Wild Bill. Growing up in Buffalo he considered the priesthood but thought himself “not good enough” to be a priest and chose the legal profession instead. He graduated from the Columbia Law School where one of his classmates was Franklin Roosevelt the future president of the United States. Bill met and married Ruth Rumsey in 1914 and they had two children Patricia and David, before he went off to war in 1917. Bill joined the 69^th Fighting Irish Regiment of Civil War fame and eventually was promoted to command it. His unit was involved in heavy fighting and many were lost including his adjutant, the poet Joyce Kilmer. He refused to strip off his insignia of rank, a target for German snipers saying “If they can’t hit me, they can’t you.” He earned his nickname “Wild Bill” during these campaigns in France and it followed him for the rest of his life. He was wounded three times while leading his regiment and met his greatest challenge during the Allied advance against the German line near Landres-Et-St. Georges on 14-15 October 1918. Allied planning was botched. Donovan’s regiment was ordered to advance and found itself under fire on both flanks from positions that were supposed to have already been taken. “Where the Hell is that coming from” he shouted as he led the troops in their futile attack. The men were pinned down but Donovan rallied the troops and led them in a successful withdrawal even though he was severely wounded in the leg. He was awarded the Medal of Honor for this fight.

Donovan returned to his law firm after the war and became part of an informal network of businessmen and attorneys collecting foreign intelligence. He believed that war with Germany was inevitable. Donovan started exchanging notes with his former classmate and now President Roosevelt who recognized that Donovan had great value in the field of intelligence. Donovan was also quite famous due to the film The Fighting 69^th. Actor George Brent played Donovan in the film. On 11 July 1941 Roosevelt signed an order assigning Donovan as the Coordinator of Intelligence. A centralized intelligence program was organized by Donovan and this became the OSS and later the CIA.

Following the war, he entered the field of diplomacy and became the Ambassador to Thailand. It was in Thailand that he first started to experience the symptoms of dementia in 1957. He was hospitalized at Walter Reed where President Eisenhower visited him just before Wild Bill died on 8 February 1959. He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery. Ruth outlived her husband. She died in Berryville Virginia in 1977. Eisenhower later told a friend that Donovan was the last hero.