Bios
Robert French, Director
Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency (PEMA)
Robert P. French was appointed PEMA Director by Governor Edward G. Rendell on August 13, 2007. He has been directly involved in emergency management operations as a "second" responder, e.g. military planning and response for more than 30 years.
Prior to joining PEMA, Mr. French served as the deputy adjutant general — Army, Pennsylvania National Guard, a post he assumed in February 2004. On behalf of The Adjutant General, he was responsible for overseeing the Pennsylvania Army National Guard. An Army Major General, French has served in each of the three major components of the Pennsylvania Army National Guard: the Pennsylvania National Guard Joint Headquarters, the 28th Infantry Division and the 213th Area Support Group. He also served with U.S. Army Europe.
He completed Basic Training at Fort Polk, La., in 1972 as a mortar man. Mr. French attended the Pennsylvania National Guard Military Academy Officer Candidate School at Fort Indiantown Gap, graduating in 1974. Since that time, he has worked in support of emergency management actions from the local level through to the state level, serving in the Emergency Operation Center of the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs and PEMA.
Mr. French was born in Mt. Pleasant, Pa., in 1950. Raised in rural Dawson, Pa., he graduated from: Frazier High School in 1968; Mansfield State College in 1972, and the United States Army War College with a Master's degree in 2001.