Cybersecurity Pioneer William D. Coffee

By Ewan Craddock

As someone who wants to get into cybersecurity, I decided to pick a person who was in an early form of the industry. William D. Coffee was born in Abingdon, Virginia in 1917. He was hired as a waiter by Arlington Hall School for Girls in 1940. When the Army acquired the building, he applied to a federal position and was hired as a janitor for the Signals Intelligence Service in 1942, he eventually became a messenger. In 1942. In 1944 he was promoted to cryptographic clerk and then later to civilian in charge of B-3-b. The goal of this unit was to break commercial codes from Europe, Asia, and South America.

In April 1945 the was expanded to break the codes of smaller nations. In 1946 he was transferred to the Intercept Control Branch as the supervisor. On April 3rd, 1946, William Coffee was awarded the Commendation for Meritorious Civilian Service. He died in 1989 at the age of 72. The impact that William D Coffee made was immense on the US intelligence community as he broke down the racial barriers at the Army and NSA.