WILLIAM EGAN COLBY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP99-00418R000100060001-5
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 11, 2012
• Sequence Number: 1
• Content Type: BIO

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/05/11 : CIA-RDP99-00418R000100060001-5
WILLIAM EGAN COLBY
Mr. William E. Colby was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, in
1920. The son of an Army officer, his early life was spent in
various posts, including a three-year period in Tientsin, China.
In 1940 he was graduated from Princeton University and in
1941 joined the United States Army, serving in the Parachute
Field Artillery. When the Office of Strategic Services put
out a call for French speakers in 1943, Mr. Colby volunteered
and in 1944 was parachuted behind enemy lines in north central
France to work with a resistance unit. Shortly before the end
of the war in 1945, he led a team dropped in northern Norway
to destroy a rail line used for transporting German reinforce-
Lents.
Following the war, Mr. Colby obtained his law degree from
Columbia :.aw School and joined a New York law firm headed by
t. J. Donovan, former head of OSS. He is a member of the
New York State and U. S. Supreme Court bars.
In 1949 Mr. Colby accepted his first U. S. Government
Position as an attorney for the National Labor Relations
Board in Washington. In 1951 he joined the staff of the
American Embassy in Stockholm and from 1953 to 1958 served in
the American Embassy in Rome, Italy.
Mr. Colby became First Secretary of the American Embassy
in Saigon in 1959, leaving in 1962 for an assignment as Chief
o the Far East Division of the Central. Intelligence Agency in
Washington, D. C.
In March 1968 Mr. Colby joined?the Agency for International
Development and was posted to Saigon to assume the post of
assistant Chief of Staff and in November 1968 of Deputy to the
Commander of MACV for the CORDS program of support to the
Government of Vietnam's pacification campaign, with the
personal rank of Ambassador. He was reassigned to the Depart-
m..ent of State on 30 June 1971.
On 10 January 1972 Mr. Colby was appointed Executive
Director-Comptroller of the Central Intelligence Agency. qtr.
Colby was appointed Deputy Director for Operations effective
3 March 1973. On 10 May 1973 President Nixon nominated '?:r.
Colby as Director of Central Intelligence, and MMMr. Colby was
Sworn in on 4 September 1973.
MMir. Colby is married to the former Barbara lie in::en.
They have four children and reside in Bethesda.
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/05/11 : CIA-RDP99-00418R000100060001-5
 Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/05/11 : CIA-RDP99-00418R000100060001-5
WILLIAM E. COLBY
(DCI- 4 September 1973 -30 January 1976)
Retired from government service upon leaving CIA
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/05/11 : CIA-RDP99-00418R000100060001-5