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Not to be confused with B.D.Memorial International.

Braddock, Dunn & McDonald, later known as BDM, then BDM International, was a technical services firm founded in 1959 in New York City. Its founders were Dr. Joseph V. Braddock,[1] Dr. Bernard J. Dunn,[2] and Dr. Daniel F. McDonald,[3] who each received a PhD from Fordham University in the Bronx, New York. In 1997, TRW purchased BDM, and in 2002 Northrop Grumman bought TRW.

Move to Texas

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Within a year of its founding, the company moved to El Paso, Texas, to be close to the U.S. Army's Air Defense Center at Fort Bliss, Texas, the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, and Holloman Air Force Base, also in New Mexico. The founders offered their experience in missile guidance, applied optics, electronic instrumentation, and radiation physics to the U.S. Defense Department, primarily to the U.S. Army.[4][5]

Williams hired

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A few years later the three founders hired Earle Williams, an engineer with a degree from Auburn University in Alabama, who eventually became President and CEO. He led the company through a time of rapid growth and expansion. Among Williams's most significant decisions was to move BDM to the Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C., a few miles west of the Pentagon. That location offered the company a better opportunity to compete for defense contracts than it could from El Paso.[6][7] For the rest of its existence as a company it occupied a series of ever-larger office spaces in an unincorporated area known as Tysons Corner, Virginia, formed by the interchange of the newly completed Capital Beltway and Virginia Routes 7 and 123.[8]

Rapid growth

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The company grew rapidly, along with Tysons Corner. In the early 1960s Tysons Corner was a sleepy crossroads, but has since grown into a classic "edge city", and a home of many government and military contractors. Williams promoted the area as a suitable place for technology-oriented firms. Tysons Corner and the surrounding towns became the home of many of BDM's competitors, including Planning Research Corporation, DynCorp International, and CACI. Although all competed with BDM, in the buildup of defense budgets in the late 20th century, nearly all prospered.[9] For a time, the press referred to these companies as "Beltway bandit",[10][11][12] the phrase was originally a mild insult, implying that the companies preyed like bandits on the generosity of the federal government. Employees of those companies, including BDM President Earle Williams, took offense to that term.[13]

Although the location of the headquarters of these defense contractors was part of an overall trend of movement to the suburbs beginning in the 1960s, BDM played a leading role in the specifics of this movement into the Virginia suburbs of Washington.[14]

Change in ownership

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In 1988, BDM was purchased by Ford Aerospace and became a part of Ford Motor Company.[15][16] In 1990, Ford Aerospace was sold to Loral and BDM was spun off to the Carlyle Group.[17][18] In 1997, BDM was purchased by TRW, an aerospace systems and technical services company,[19][20] which in turn was acquired by Northrop Grumman in 2002.[21][22]

References

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  1. ^ Szczepanowski, Richard (February 18, 2021). "Joseph Braddock dies at 91". Arlington Catholic Herald. Archived from the original on November 7, 2024. Retrieved November 7, 2024.
  2. ^ Sullivan, Patricia (March 26, 2009). "Co-Founder of Defense Firm, Philanthropist". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on November 7, 2024. Retrieved November 7, 2024.
  3. ^ Bernstein, Adam (January 28, 2012). "Daniel F. McDonald, physicist who co-founded BDM International, dies at 85". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on November 7, 2024. Retrieved November 7, 2024.
  4. ^ Ceruzzi 2008, p. 88.
  5. ^ Axelrod 2014, p. 294.
  6. ^ Barnes, Bart (April 7, 2016). "Earle Williams, who built BDM into contracting giant, dies at 86". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on November 7, 2024. Retrieved November 7, 2024.
  7. ^ Bach, James (April 8, 2016). "The death of Earle Williams means the government services industry has lost one of its creators". Washington Business Journal. Archived from the original on November 8, 2024. Retrieved November 8, 2024.
  8. ^ Ceruzzi 2008, p. 87–103.
  9. ^ Hamilton, Martha M.; Wright, Chapin (February 17, 1980). "Flourishing Federal Contractors Help to Fuel Region's Economy". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on November 7, 2024. Retrieved November 7, 2024.
  10. ^ Halloran, Richard (July 14, 1987). "Washington Talk: Military Consultants; A Thriving Industry to Do the Pentagon's Work". The New York Times. Archived from the original on November 1, 2017. Retrieved November 8, 2024.
  11. ^ Potts, Mark (March 3, 1991). "BDM Comes Full Circle in Making Deals". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on November 8, 2024. Retrieved November 8, 2024.
  12. ^ Donnelly, Sally B.; Zagorin, Adam (August 7, 2000). "A far cry from Capitol Hill, the new Washington is run by young techies with big bucks--and rising power". CNN. Archived from the original on November 8, 2024. Retrieved November 8, 2024.
  13. ^ Day, Kathleen (February 8, 1994). "Riding Herd on the Bad Guy Image of 'beltway Bandits'". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on November 8, 2024. Retrieved November 8, 2024.
  14. ^ Harry Jaffee, "The High Priest of High-Tech: Earle Williams and the Future of Fairfax County," Regardie's (July 1985), 58-63.
  15. ^ Risen, James (May 25, 1988). "Ford Aerospace to Buy Defense Research Firm : Company Says It's Paying for BDM's Talent Pool". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on November 7, 2024. Retrieved November 7, 2024.
  16. ^ Ross, Philip E. (May 25, 1988). "COMPANY NEWS; Ford Aerospace to Buy A Military Researcher". The New York Times. Archived from the original on November 7, 2024. Retrieved November 7, 2024.
  17. ^ Smart, Tim; Leibovich, Mark (November 22, 1997). "TRW to Buy Mclean-Based BDM". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on November 7, 2024. Retrieved November 7, 2024.
  18. ^ "TRW Agrees to Buy BDM for $975 Million". Los Angeles Times. November 22, 1997. Archived from the original on November 7, 2024. Retrieved November 7, 2024.
  19. ^ "TRW Agrees To Divest BDM Assets To Settle FTC Charges". Federal Trade Commission. December 24, 1997. Archived from the original on November 7, 2024. Retrieved November 7, 2024.
  20. ^ "TRW Completes $975-Million BDM Buy". Los Angeles Times. December 27, 1997. Archived from the original on November 7, 2024. Retrieved November 7, 2024.
  21. ^ Deutsch, Claudia H. (February 26, 2002). "Out of Retirement and Into a Takeover Fight at TRW". The New York Times. Archived from the original on November 7, 2024. Retrieved November 7, 2024.
  22. ^ Wayne, Leslie (July 2, 2002). "Northrop to Buy TRW for $7.8 Billion". The New York Times. Archived from the original on January 31, 2024. Retrieved January 31, 2024.

Bibliography

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