Michael Anthony Wermuth

Michael A. Wermuth, Terrorism Expert and Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense, Dies at 69
Wermuth spent his career in service of his country. A fierce, dedicated patriot, he was commissioned in the US Army upon completing his BS in commerce and business administration in 1969 and retired a Colonel in the Army Reserves in 1999. In 1974, he earned his juris doctor from the University of Alabama and began practicing law in Mobile, Ala. Wermuth became involved in local politics during his time in Mobile and actively campaigned for senatorial candidate Jeremiah R. Denton (R-Ala). When Denton was elected, Wermuth and his family moved to Washington, DC, where he served as Denton's chief counsel and legislative director from 1980 to 1987.

Wermuth then spent a year as legislative counsel for civil rights and was deputy assistant attorney general for legislative affairs in the Department of Justice. In 1989, he was named deputy assistant secretary of defense for drug enforcement policy, with a focus on helping agencies coordinate the implementation of President H.W. Bush's national drug control strategy.

In 1999, Wermuth joined the prestigious RAND Corporation, where he served as director of its Homeland Security Program and co-director of its Center for Terrorism Risk Management Policy. He managed RAND's Counterterrorism and Homeland Defense Programs National Security Research Division from 2008 until 2010. While at RAND, Wermuth was the executive director of a federal advisory panel on terrorism that concluded-nearly two years before 9/11-that a terrorist attack on U.S. soil was inevitable.

Although Wermuth officially retired from RAND in 2010, he continued his work as a consultant with the think tank and served as an adjunct faculty member at the Texas AandM University Bush School of Government and Public Service and, previously, at the Department of Public and International Affairs at George Mason University. He taught graduate level online courses in homeland security and homeland defense. Though his influence in terrorism defense strategy was vast, Wermuth's enduring legacy will be his stewardship of the next generation of policy makers who will continue to protect and defend the country he loved so well.

Michael Anthony Wermuth, son of the late Florian Robert Wermuth and Sarah Pascal Wermuth, was born in Birmingham, Ala. in 1946. He is survived by his wife of 35 years, Fran Wermuth of Kiawah Island, SC; son and daughter-in-law, Ken and Erinn Bryan; daughter and son-in-law, Heather and Patrick Livingston; grandchildren Lauren, Kathleen, and Joshua Bryan and Nathaniel and Piper Livingston; sister, Rev. Marcia Urban; brother Robert Wermuth; and numerous nieces and nephews.

A gathering of family and friends will celebrate his life on Friday, November 6, on Kiawah Island. Wermuth's final resting place will be the Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va. Arrangements by J. Henry Stuhr Inc., West Ashley Chapel, 3360 Glenn McConnell Parkway, Charleston SC.

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to South Carolina Environmental Law Project, PO Box 1380, Pawleys Island, SC 29585 and/or Coastal Conservation League, 328 East Bay Street, Charleston, SC 29401.