John William Middendorf II (born September 22, 1924) is a former United States diplomat, Secretary of the Navy, and Republican political operative.

[3] Middendorf received a Bachelor of Naval Science (BNS) degree from College of the Holy Cross[4] in 1945.

In World War II, he served in the United States Navy from 1944 to 1946 as engineer officer and navigator aboard USS LCS(L) 53.

He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Harvard College in 1947, where he was a member of the Hasty Pudding Theatricals and the Owl Club.

[citation needed] Shortly after taking office in 1969, President Richard Nixon appointed Middendorf as United States Ambassador to the Netherlands.

Whereupon, Middendorf paid a personal call on many of the senators he had worked with while he was Treasurer of the Republican Party—and soon enough he had been nominated and confirmed as Secretary of the Navy, serving until the end of the administration of President Gerald Ford.

[8] He is a member of the board of trustees for The Heritage Foundation, an influential Washington, D.C.–based public policy research institute.

[9] He is also a member of the Rhode Island Society of the Sons of the Revolution and the Naval Order of the United States.