2 July 1998
Source: Hardcopy The New York
Times, July 2, 1998, p. B9
By WOLFGANG SAXON
Frank Byron Rowlett, one of the foursome who started the Signal Intelligence Service of the United States Army in 1930, died on Monday at the Wilson Health Care Center in Gaithersburg, Md. He was 90 and moved to the center last year from a retirement home in Sarasota, Fla.
Mr. Rowlett came to the rarefied world of cryptology without practical experience. But he was trained to be a mathematics teacher with knowledge of chemistry, physics, Latin and German and made important contributions to the nation's Signals Intelligence and Security system in World War 11.
His proudest achievement was Sigaba, the encryption machine that was the most secure device of its kind in the American arsenal throughout the war.
He also led the team of cryptanalysts who broke Purple, the machine that encrypted Tokyo's messages to and from the Japanese Embassy in Berlin. By deciphering the code, American intelligence was able to spy on crucial aspects of Japanese diplomacy as well as German intentions and capabilities in Europe.
Frank Rowlett was born in Rose Hill, Va., and graduated in 1929 from Emory and Henry College. The next year, his academic credentials led to his recruitment by the father of modern American cryptology, William F. Friedman, as one of his original three junior cryptanalysts.
Together they made up the fledgling Signal Intelligence Service. With the American entry into World War 11, Mr. Rowlett was commissioned into the Army and rose to the rank of colonel. After the war he led the intelligence division of the Army Security Agency, an S.l.S. successor.
He later joined the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency, the super-secret branch that was created in the early 1950's to make and break codes. He became a special assistant to the director of the security agency in 1958 and retired in 1965 as commandant of the National Cryptologic School.
In 1965, he was honored by President Lyndon B. Johnson, who presented him with the President's Award for Distinguished Federal Civilian Service. After Mr. Rowlett retired, Mr. Johnson awarded him the National Security Medal for breaking the Japanese code 25 years earlier. The National Security Agency's highest awards for achievement by an individual and an organization in the field of Information Systems Security were named in his honor in 1990.
Mr. Rowlett is survived by a son, Thomas M., of Frederick, Md., four grandchildren and three greatgrandchildren. His first wife, to whom he was married for 50 years, Edith King Rowlett, died in 1980. His second wife, Alice Creech Rowlett, died last year.