President Kennedy attends as James Rowley is sworn-in as Secret Service Chief, 1961
Courtesy of AARC president, Dan Alcorn
Chief Rowley of the Secret Service did not resign after Nov. 22, 1963 and served as director until 1973. On November 22, 1963, in the company of other prominent members of President Kennedy’s Cabinet, Treasury Secretary C. Douglas Dillon was on his way to Japan and had delegated power over the Secret Service to G. d’Andelot Belin, General Counsel of the Treasury Dept. After the assassination, Secretary Dillon ordered that all inquiries about the assassination be handled by Belin.
G. d’Andelot Belin was a member of a branch of the duPont family. He joined Skull& Bones, Class of 1939 and married the sister of McGeorge and William Bundy. The Belin family owned the largest estate in Georgetown, Evermay. A member of the family helped form the OSS, and another served as chief of intelligence for the Joint Chiefs of Staff. According to David Talbot, the Belins rented a house at Evermay to Allen Dulles at below market rates.
James Joseph Rowley was born in Bronx County, New York to James J. Rowley and Bridget Theresa McTeague. His parents were Irish immigrants who met in New York City and were married in Manhattan.
Rowley began working for the Secret Service in 1938 during the days of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s administration, after first joining the FBI in 1936. On June 18, 1964, Rowley provided testimony to the Warren Commission investigating the assassination of John F. Kennedy. After the assassination, Secret Service training was regularized and systematized. The James J. Rowley Training Center in Beltsville, Maryland is named after him.
Note: The United States Secret Service (USSS or Secret Service) is a federal law enforcement agency under the Department of Homeland Security with the purpose of conducting criminal investigations and protecting U.S. political leaders, their families, and visiting heads of state or government.[3] The Secret Service was, until 2003, part of the Department of the Treasury, due to their initial mandate of combatting counterfeiting of U.S. currency.[4] The agency has protected U.S. presidents since 1901 and presidential candidates since the fall of 1968 after the assassination of Senator Robert F. Kennedy.