James Mattis, a retired U.S. Marine Corps four star general
who has served as U.S. Secretary of Defense since Jan. 20, 2017, will retire
Feb. 28, 2019, according to a letter --dated Dec. 20, 2018 -- he wrote to U.S.
President Donald Trump.
Mattis was born in 1950 in Pullman. He grew up in Richland
in the Tri-Cities and graduated from high school in Richland in 1968.
--James Norman Mattis was born Sept. 8, 1950, at Finch
Memorial Hospital on the Washington State College (WSC) campus in Pullman. His
birth was mentioned in a story in the Sept. 15, 1950, issue of the Pullman
Herald weekly newspaper.
In 1959 WSC became WSU, Washington State University. The
hospital’s name eventually changed to Pullman Memorial Hospital. Now at an
off-campus location, it’s called Pullman Regional Hospital.
--He is a 1968 graduate of Columbia High School, also known as Richland High School (or vice versa), in Richland, Wash., and a 1972 graduate of Central
Washington State University (now Central Washington University) in Ellensburg,
Wash.
--His mother is Lucille Marie Proulx Mattis (she lives in
Richland, Wash.) and his father was John West Mattis (died in 1988). Lucille
was born in 1922 in Massey Station, Ontario, Canada. John, born in North Belle
Vernon, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, went by his middle name, West.
--The 1950 WSU Fussers Guide shows “Mattis, J West” employed
as “Fireman Utilities and Construction” at the college’s Power Plant. His
mother may have also worked for WSC.
--A Dec. 2, 2016, story in the Tri-City Herald said Mattis
was born in eastern Washington and grew up in Richland. “He was 16 when his
family moved into one of Richland’s Alphabet Houses, not far from the Columbia
River.” But, age 16 can’t be the correct age since Pullman’s Rex Davis, a
retired WSU coach/professor, was James Mattis’ grade school PE teacher in
Richland from 1955 to 1960, according to an Aug. 25, 2016, story from WSU News.
Sept. 8, 1955, was James Mattis’s fifth birthday. So, it seems more likely the
Mattis family moved to Richland when James was about five years old.
--A Seattle Times story (Jan. 7, 2017) says Mattis’ father
moved the family “from Pullman to Richland in the early 1950s to take a job as
a power-plant operator at Hanford after a career that had included sea duty as
a merchant mariner during World War II. Mattis' mother, Lucille, was a war
veteran, too, having served as an Army intelligence officer based in South
Africa."
--Lucille’s sister, Rose Marie, married Harold Ames, who was
from Chewelah. Both Rose and Harold were WSC graduates.
