Colonel Carried On His Family's Military Tradition With Fervor

The Madigan family has seen a lot of military service. Four generations have served, suiting up for the major conflicts of the past century. Retired Army Col. John J. Madigan III, who died May 4 at 80 after a fall at his Fairfax County retirement home, was the grandson of a Marine Corps veteran and the son and father of career soldiers. He twice served in the Old Guard at Fort Myer, an elite ceremonial unit, and was a veteran of the Vietnam War. He spent the latter half of his 30-year career in intelligence.

In a family that prided itself on patriotism and tradition, Col. Madigan also had a wry sense of humor. Enamored of composer John Philip Sousa after serving two tours in the Old Guard, whose ceremonies are often conducted to Sousa marches, he had a special way of rousing his children.

"This is how Dad would wake us up for church on Sunday: loud John Philip Sousa music," said his eldest son, retired Army Col. John Philip Madigan, 52, who got his name from the composer and later served in the Old Guard.

The first John J. Madigan came from Ireland in the late 19th century, settled his family in Washington, became a liquor dealer and served for a period in the Marine Corps. Two of his children became Army doctors: Patrick Madigan was an Army surgeon whose name graces the Madigan Army Medical Center at Fort Lewis, Wash., and Col. Madigan's father and namesake retired as a colonel and was for a time Gen. George C. Marshall's physician.

John Joseph Madigan III was born at Fort Bragg, N.C., on Jan. 11, 1929, and grew up in Washington, where he graduated from St. John's College High School. Unable to win an appointment to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., he instead attended Georgetown University's foreign service school and joined the Army in 1954.

He went on to receive a bachelor's degree from the University of Maryland, master's degrees in public administration and liberal studies from Shippensburg University in Pennsylvania and Georgetown, respectively, and a doctorate in adult education from Virginia Tech.

While at Georgetown, he met Ann "Nancy" Curran at a mixer. They married in October 1955 and had five children, all of whom survive. The family moved into a house in Springfield in the late 1960s, which remained Col. Madigan's residence until he was widowed in 1997.

After a heart attack in 1977, Col. Madigan gave up smoking and began running. Within a few years, he retired from the Army and began a second phase of his life. He was a tax official with the state of Virginia for many years and also an adjunct professor teaching national security studies, technical writing and other subjects at area colleges.

Col. Madigan's family, including two former members of the Old Guard, gathered at Arlington National Cemetery on July 31 to say farewell to him. Tom Madigan, 50, who had served one tour in the Army, said that after so many of his family's experiences working ceremonies there during terrible weather, the fact that it poured buckets was "almost fitting" for his father.

And as John Joseph Madigan III was guided to his burial site, with rain pouring down, there was one more fitting element: the music of John Philip Sousa.