William Remington
Secret apparatus
Tennessee Valley Authority
Office of Emergency Management
War Production Board
American Youth Congress
American Peace Mobilization
Myrna group
William Walter Remington was born 25 October 1917 in New Jersey and received a B.A. from Dartmouth College in 1939 and an M.A. from Columbia University in 1940, also having completed most of the requirements for a Ph.D.
Remington was employed from September 1936 to May 1937 with the Tennessee Valley Authority, Knoxville, Tennessee; April 1937 to August 1937 with the Workers' Education project, Knoxville, Tennessee; and from May 1940 to July 15, 1941, a Junior Economist with the National Resources Planning Board in Washington D.C; from July 1941 to February 1942 Remington was an associate industrial economist in the Consumers Division of the Office of Emergency Management; from February 1942 to October 1943 Remington worked as an assistant to the Director of the War Production Board (WPB), and from October 1943 an assistant to the Director of Orders ans Regulations Bureau in the WPB.
Remington was employed in a number of posts, principally as an economist:
- Tennessee Valley Authority, Knoxville, Tennessee, September 1936 to May 1937;
- Workers' Education project, Knoxville, April to August 1937;
- Junior Economist with the National Resources Planning Board, Washington D.C, May 1940 to July 15, 1941;
- Associate industrial economist in the Consumers Division of the Office of Emergency Management, from July 1941 to February 1942;
- Assistant to the Director of the War Production Board (WPB), February 1942 to October 1943;
- Assistant to the Director of Orders and Regulations Bureau in the WPB, October 1943 onwards.
During a Hatch Act investigation it was discovered Remington had been active in the American Peace Mobilization and did research for the American Youth Congress in February 1941. Remington's wife, Ann, was the executive secretary of the Washington chapter of the American Peoples Mobilization.
Remington supplied Elizabeth Bentley for transmission to the Soviet Union information such as: charts setting out aircraft production and other matters concerning the aircraft industry; tests made on aircraft and other data concerning high octane gasoline; other information related to the aircraft production field; and a process for the manufacture of synthetic rubber. Remington introduced Bentley to Bernard Redmont.
After World War II, Remington obtained a position with the Office of War Mobilization and Reconversion. In 1946, Remington was about to be transferred to a professional position at the White House as an aide to a presidential assistant when FBI suspicion put a stop to it. After that Remington was in the process of applying for a position with the Atomic Energy Commission when the FBI interviewed him in 1947.
Remington later was convicted of perjury for denying Communist Party activity and was killed in a prison brawl.
References
- John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999).
- FBI Silvermaster file pgs. 283-287
- May, G. (1995) Un-American Activities: The Trials of William Remington ISBN 1-57766-327-6