retired from national politics and returned to Massachusetts after Taft left office in 1913. He joined the effort to reelect Theodore Roosevelt in 1916. The foremost critic of Woodrow Wilson's naval policies, on the outbreak of World War I he urged preparedness and criticised America's naval administration. He was actively associated with the National Security League and the Navy League. Among the organizations for which he was a director were the Amoskeag Manufacturing Co., Old Colony Trust Co., Puget Sound Light & Power Co., Walter Baker Co., and Ames Plow Co. In December 1916 Meyer, Roosevelt and other philanthropists including Scottish-born industrialist John C. Moffat, William A. Chanler, Joseph Choate, Clarence Mackay, John Grier Hibben, and Nicholas Murray Butler purchased the Château de Chavaniac, birthplace of the Marquis de Lafayette in Auvergne to serve as a headquarters for the French Heroes Lafayette Memorial Fund, which was managed by Chanler's ex-wife Beatrice Ashley Chanler. He died in Boston on March 9, 1918. Legacy The Navy destroyer USS Meyer (DD-279), named in his honor, was commissioned December 17, 1919 and was in service until May 15, 1929. George von Lengerke Meyer was a brother in the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity (Alpha chapter). See also 115th Massachusetts General Court (1894) 116th Massachusetts General Court (1895) 117th Massachusetts General Court (1896) Notes References Boston Transcript, March 11, 1918 Who's who in State Politics, 1912 Practical Politics (1912) p. 9. External links 1858 births 1918 deaths Ambassadors of the United States to Italy Ambassadors of the United States to Russia American people of German descent Harvard University alumni Politicians from Boston Speakers of the Massachusetts House of Representatives United States Postmasters General Boston City Council members United States Secretaries of the Navy Taft administration cabinet members Theodore Roosevelt administration cabinet members 20th-century American politicians Republican Party members of the Massachusetts House of Representatives Businesspeople from Boston Conservatism in the United States 20th-century American diplomats 19th-century American politicians