Benjamin Lewis Padgett – Lieuenant Colonel, United States Army

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Also Known As “Gadget Padgett”
Born March 20, 1894. Died. May 10, 1951

Colonel Padgett was quite the mathematician and was also an inventor. They called him “Gadget Padgett” after he invented a simple wooden machine that allowed the shifting of colored paper to represent statistical trends in motion. He was payed a tidy sum for the Graph Device from a major business machine company of this century.

Colonel Padgett joined the Army in the first World War and soon found himself working for future President Herbert Hoover on the American Relief Effort to ease the plight of more than 120,000 Americans stranded in European countries at the outbreak of hostilities.

Colonel Padgett was a pioneer in the  modern science of “Logistics” (getting enough there on time). In 1931, as a Major, Padgett was appointed to a teaching position in statistics and logistics at the Army War College where he received his promotion to Lieutenant Colonel.

Padgett had the opportunity to impact the “Class the Stars Fell On” principly the great military leaders who possibly applied some of his logistical and forcasting theories in the World War II campaigns to follow. When war broke out in 1941, Colonel Padgett served as a Special Consultant to the Secretary of War and Statistical Consultant to the War
Deparment. He provided his special skills and advice until World War II ended in 1945. He retired soon after and lived to the age of 57.

He passed away May 10,1951 from gastrointestinal illness. His son was a highly decorated WWII Ranger who succumbed to his war injuries in 1969. His grandson served in Germany as a combat medic during the Viet Nam Era. Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Virginia. Section 34, Grave 3671

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