Fechner, Robert

(1876-1939)

   The first director of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), Robert Fechner was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and educated in Georgia. He became an apprentice on the Georgia Central Railroad in 1892, joined the army in 1898 but did not see action, and later worked in mining in Mexico and Central and South America. He returned to Georgia in 1905 and became a labor organizer. From 1913 to 1933 he was executive officer of the International Associations of Machinists. During World War I, he served as an adviser on labor policy, where he met Franklin D. Roosevelt, then as assistant secretary to the navy. In 1933, President Roosevelt made him head of the CCC. Fechner rejected proposals that the corps become an educational program, and he also resisted the implementation of military training in the camps. He was reluctant to include African Americans, particularly as officers. As a consequence, there were only two officers in the CCC, and African Americans were segregated. Fechner died of a heart attack in 1939 and was succeeded by James J. McEntee.