Major General
Sidney P. Spalding

Major General Sidney P. Spalding was born in Massachusetts on August 5, 1889 and graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1912.

During World War I, he designed the American Proving Grounds and the Ammunition Supply Division in France. As acting Commander of Aberdeen Proving Ground, he fired the first weapons test on January 1, 1918.

In the early 1930's, he was tasked to modernize the post at Aberdeen. It was a time when jobs and money were scarce so he used hundreds of skilled workers from Baltimore to transform the old post, with temporary buildings, into a new and modern installation. Many of the buildings are still in use today.

He is credited with the idea, along with Major J. H. Burns, for what is now the Armed Forces Industrial College.

In the years preceding World War II, he transformed American industry onto a war footing and established the lend-lease administration between the United States and Canada. Assignments to the Union of Soviet Socialists Republic were not uncommon, as he organized their supply and transportation systems. Maj. Gen. Spalding retired in August 1949 only to be recalled to duty in September. His second retirement came in 1951 when he began a second career as a Virginia farmer. General Spalding died on December 21, 1988 at the age of 99.