William Henry Lanagan Jr.

Westerly - William Henry Lanagan Jr., 88, Brigadier General, USMC [ret.], died on Dec. 2, 2011, in Westerly.

General Lanagan, a longtime resident of Stonington, was born on June 13, 1923, in Washington, D.C. The son of Army Colonel William H. Lanagan Sr. and Helen Gillette, he spent his boyhood in Hawaii and California. After attending the University of California at Berkeley, he joined the Marine Corps in 1943, and served in World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. In 1965, as commanding officer of the First and later the Third Battalion, Third Marines, Third Marine Division in Vietnam, he was awarded the Legion of Merit with Combat ‘V'. He was selected for promotion to Brigadier General in 1971 while serving as Special Assistant Marine Corps Aide to Secretary of the Navy John Chaffee. In 1972 he served as Deputy Assistant Chief of Staff, J-3 [Operations], U.S. Military Assistance Command under General Creighton Abrams, and was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal. In August of 1972, General Lanagan was named director of the Marine Corps Reserve, and in 1973 became assistant division commander and later commanding general, Second Marine Division at Camp Lejeune. He retired in 1975.

Throughout his 32-year career in the military, General Lanagan was a conscientious and reflective leader whose philosophy as a commanding officer embraced the need for a rigorous ethical code during war. In a 1965 Washington Star interview, he described his efforts to protect not only the troops under his command, but the civilian Vietnamese population as well. In the same article, he described having felt, while working at the Pentagon during the Cuban Missile Crisis, "overawed at the power at our disposal."

In retirement, he was an active member of the Center for Defense Information, a group of retired admirals and generals who oppose nuclear proliferation.

He was also an innovator. As a teenager at the Shattuck School in Faribault, Minn., he learned an intricate silent marching drill which he subsequently introduced to the Marine Corps in 1948, and which is still in use today.

Much of his military career and family life were spent in Washington. While working in the Truman White House as a Marine Corps aide, he met his first wife, the former Margery Clifford, and they married in 1950. General Lanagan's second marriage, in 1964, was to Helen Husted Chavchavadze.

Upon retirement, General Lanagan settled in the coastal village of Stonington, where he lived for 35 years. A long-time fundraiser and volunteer guide at the Mystic Seaport and a member of the Stonington Harbor Management Commission, he was active in preserving and protecting the historical integrity of the harbor. Bill Lanagan was an avid sailor as well as an accomplished draftsman and woodworker. For many years he loved sailing the waters around Stonington at the helm of his beloved Herreshoff ‘S' boat Widgeon, which he had painstakingly restored.

He is survived by his daughters, Marny Conforti, Erin Chervin, and Lulu Lanagan; his sons Timothy and Mac; his stepdaughters, Marusya and Sasha Chavchavadze; four grandchildren; and three step-grandchildren.

General Lanagan will be buried at 11 a.m. on Friday, Feb. 3, 2012, at Arlington National Cemetery.

Buckler-Johnston Funeral Home of Westerly is assisting the family.