John M. Carmody

John Michael Carmody (1881 – November 11, 1963) was an American administrator, noted as editor of Factory and Industrial Management, and as administrator of the Rural Electrification Administration and the Federal Works Agency in the 1930s.

In 1900 he started his career in the steel industry, working as inspector for companies in Pennsylvania and Illinois, and abroad in Ontario in Canada, and in Havana in Cuba. From 1914 to 1922 he worked in the garment industry in Cleveland, Ohio for the H. Black Company, producer of produced WoolTex brand coats for women, and for the Printz-Biederman Company, another coat manufacturer. In 1921 he joined the Bituminous Coal Commission under US President Warren G. Harding, his first federal job. The work of the commission would eventually lead to the Guffey Coal Act of 1935. From 1922 to 1926 Carmody worked for the Davis's Davis Coal and Coke Company in Coketon, West Virginia. In 1927 he joined the McGraw-Hill Publishing company to become editor for the magazine Coal Age, and from 1928 to 1929 for the Factory and Industrial Management magazine. Since 1933 held several government positions, starting as appointed chief engineer of the Civil Works Administration in 1933, member of the National Mediation Board in 1934/35, and in the National Labor Relations Board in 1935. In 1937 he was appointed by Franklin D. Roosevelt administrator of Rural Electrification Administration, and in 1939 head of the Federal Works Agency. Furthermore, he was member in the United States Maritime Commission (1941-46), the War Assets Administration until 1949, and the General Board of the United States Navy until 1951. In the 1950s he continued to worked as consultant and labor arbitrator.