Thomas F. McBride

The First Inspectors General

Department of Agriculture

Thomas F. McBride

Thomas McBrideThomas F. McBride was born February 8, 1929, in Elgin, Ill. He received a B.A. from New York University in 1952 and an LL.B. from Columbia Law School in 1956. He served in the U.S. Army from 1946 to 1947.

From 1956 to 1959, McBride was assistant district attorney of New York County, and from 1959 to 1960, he was assistant counsel to the New York State. Commission on Government Operations of the City of New York. In 1960 and 1961, he was an attorney and supervisory investigator for the Labor Department, and from 1961 to 1965, he was a trial attorney for the Justice Department.

From 1965 to 1968, McBride was Deputy Director of the Peace Corps for the Latin America Region. From 1968 to 1969, he was associate director of the Urban Coalition. In 1969 McBride was deputy chief counsel to the U.S. House of Representatives Select Committee on Crime.

In 1970 he was chief of the Center for Demonstrations and Professional Services of the National Institute of Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice, where he designed and carried out programs of criminal justice innovation in selected cities and counties. From 1970 to 1973, he was associate director and staff director of the Police Foundation, a Ford Foundation-funded program to support innovation and experimentation in police and criminal justice services.

From 1973 to 1975, McBride was associate special prosecutor with the Watergate Special Prosecution Force. He was head of the Campaign Contributions Task Force, the largest of the Office's task forces. He supervised more than 200 investigations and personally directed investigation and prosecution of over 30 individuals and 20 major corporations. He was responsible for liaison between the Special Prosecutor's Office and the IRS, the SEC, and other Federal agencies.

From 1975 to 1977, McBride was Director of the Bureau of Enforcement at the Civil Aeronautics Board, directing all economic enforcement activities in the field of U.S. air transport. Since 1977 he has served as Inspector General of the Agriculture Department on a nonstatutory basis.