Col. James Lillard Wilmeth III

Title: Colonel (Retired) Company: U.S. Army Location: Centreville, Virginia, United States

Col. James Lillard Wilmeth III, a retired colonel in the U.S. Army, has been recognized by Marquis Who’s Who Top Military for dedication, achievements, and leadership in military research.

Over the course of a distinguished 27-year career in the U.S. Army, Col. Wilmeth undertook major artillery and other general assignments both at key stateside military bases and overseas. Assigned to Vietnam as a battery officer and an aide-de-camp early in the late 1960s, he eventually shouldered weightier responsibilities with the 5th Artillery Group in Germany, where he was tasked with handling nuclear weapon custodial duties with NATO partners. Additionally, Col. Wilmeth was twice assigned to leadership and important staff positions at the U.S. Army Center for Army Analysis in Bethesda, Maryland, before accepting his final assignment as deputy chief of staff of the U.S. Army Recruiting Command headquarters at Ft. Sheridan, Illinois. After leaving active service in 1992, Col. Wilmeth moved on to research roles with government contracting companies such as Logistics Management Agency, Logicon, and SAIC. He ultimately wound up with Northrop Grumman as a research analyst and program manager for the Joint Analytical Support Program, providing analytical assistance to the U.S. Department of Defense’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, before retiring for good in 2009.

An honor graduate of the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps at the University of Dayton in 1960, Col. Wilmeth became the student leader of the 2,400-strong ROTC cadet corps before earning a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the school in 1965. He then received an MBA in 1973 from the University of Toledo, where he also served as an associate professor of military science and as graduate student-teacher of accounting. Col. Wilmeth also graduated from the U.S. Armed Forces Staff College in 1980 and the U.S. Army War College in 1988, has earned his qualifications from the U.S. Army Airborne and Ranger programs, and is certified as an alternate specialty of operations research systems analyst.

Previously acknowledged by Marquis Who’s Who, Col. Wilmeth appeared in the 1964-65 Who’s Who Among U.S. College Students edition and has been honored with the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award. Additional accolades include recognition as top gunnery instructor of the U.S. Army Field Artillery School in Fort Sill, Oklahoma, in 1969, and for his scholarly papers at Northrop Grumman. A member of Alpha Kappa Psi, he previously served on the board of the Military Operations Research Society and has been a donor to a wide range of charities that includes St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, the Wounded Warrior Project, the American Heart Association, and the American Cancer Society. Col. Wilmeth attributes some of his success to the influence of his grandfather, who wrote a book on the family’s genealogy and directed the U.S. Treasury Department’s Bureau of Engraving and Printing from 1917 to 1922, and to the inspiration drawn from his marriage to wife Virginia Anne. Remaining busy in retirement, he enjoys such activities as boating, playing golf, and skiing.