After leaving Georgetown, he was a clerk in a bank and then entered the consular service (January 1916) where during World War I he served in Genoa, Italy,[3] followed by Bulgaria, and Jerusalem.

He served in New York, Boston, Detroit, Los Angeles and headed the Department of Justice office in San Francisco, California.

[5] His service in the BOI (later FBI) was notable for his having worked on the 1924 capture of a neo-revolutionary army of Mexican nationals under the leadership of General Enrique Estrada at Engineer Springs on the California border.

[8][9] After two years and the submission of his extensive two-million-word report,[10] he was immediately appointed to be High Commissioner of the Pacific Coast Conference in January 1940 to carry out his recommended reforms.

[1][11] He was previously married in 1924 to Elma Catheryne Atherton (née Jackson), who divorced him on grounds of cruelty in October 1941.