Charles J. Hitch

Charles J. Hitch (January 9, 1910 – September 11, 1995) was Assistant Secretary of Defense from 1961 to 1965. He was president of the University of California from 1967 to 1975.

Hitch was born in Boonville, Missouri to Arthur M. Hitch and Bertha Johnston. His brother was Thomas Kemper Hitch. He was educated at the University of Arizona and Harvard, before travelling as a Rhodes scholar to Oxford University. He became the first Rhodes scholar to become a don at Oxford as a fellow of Queen's College, Oxford.

Between 1948 and 1961, he was head of Rand Corporation's Economics Division at Santa Monica. While at Rand, he co-authored "The Economics of Defense Spending in the Nuclear Age (1960), described by the New York Times as the 'bible' for defense budgeting.

As DOD's Comptroller, He was directed by Secretary Robert McNamara to produce a long-term, program-oriented Defense budget that became DOD's Planning, Programming and Budgeting System (PPBS).

References

• Charles J. Hitch at the University of California digital archives
• Tribute to Charles J. Hitch by Alain C. Enthoven