Resigning from work the next day, he reported for duty and was assigned to the office of General George C. Marshall's chief of staff in Washington, D.C. "The five years in the service with General Marshall was the experience of a lifetime and laid the base for a career as a professional manager," Mr. Brigham wrote in 1962 for his 25th Harvard class report. In 1945, Marshall himself presented a Legion of Merit award to Mr. Brigham, who remained in the Army Reserve after the war, retiring as a colonel in 1967.