Dixon Telegraph, Dixon, IL March 27, 1948

Deaths

Admiral Joseph Reeves Washington, March 27 - AP -
Funeral services will be held Tuesday at the Naval Academy, Annapolis, for Admiral Joseph Mason Reeves, 75, a former commander in chief of the U. S. Navy. He was a native of Tampico, IL.

Admiral Reeves, a veteran of this nation's last three wars, died Thursday at Bethesda naval hospital.

He entered the Naval Academy in 1890 and distinguished himself early in his career. While engineer officer aboard the battleship Oregon in the Spanish American war, he was cited for conspicuous duty and advanced four numbers in the rank of the list of lieutenants junior grade. The citation came from his part in the Oregon's race from the west coast to join Admiral Sampson's fleet in Santiago Harbor, Cuba. The fleet destroyed a Spanish force July 3, 1898.

He was made commander in chief of the U. S. Fleet in 1934. After two years in that post, he became a member and later chairman of the Navy's General Board until retiring in 1937. He was recalled in World War II to serve as the Navy department's lend-lease liaison officer and senior military member of the munitions assignment board. His son, Joseph M. Reeves of Los Angeles, Calif., is enroute east for the funeral. The admiral is survived by a brother, H. H. Reeves of Schenectady, N.Y. and a niece, Mrs. Robert Wood, Patuxent, Md.

RELATED LINKS:  California Military Museum