Joseph S. Marriott was born on a farm near Waterford, Stanislaus County, California, on July 5, 1895. He graduated from Stanford University in 1917, with a B.A. in Analytical Chemistry. After attending Aviation Ground School at the University of California, Berkeley, and receiving his flight training at Rockwell Field, San Diego, he was commissioned a first lieutenant in the aviation section of the Army Signal Corps in December 1917. He served as a flight instructor at Park Field, Millington, Tennessee. For a brief time after the war he flew barnstorming exhibitions with the Memphis Aerial Company. At the end of 1920, he returned to California, received a teaching credential, and taught high school chemistry and physics for five years in Marin County. During this period he retained his affiliation with the Army Reserve. In 1927, he obtained a position with the newly established Aeronautics Branch of the Department of Commerce. The Aeronautics Branch developed into the Bureau of Air Commerce, and became the Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) in 1938, and the Federal Aviation Agency (FAA) in 1958. Except for service as the War Department member on the Inter-Departmental Air Traffic Control Board during World War II, Marriott remained with the Commerce Department until his retirement in 1956. During the 1930s he served as Assistant Chief, then Chief of Inspection Service, for the Bureau of Air Commerce. Upon leaving active military service in 1946, he became CAA regional manager for the five southwestern states; when the CAA was reorganized several years later his authority was extended to cover the 11 western states. A lieutenant colonel by 1936, he was promoted to colonel in 1943, and to brigadier general between 1952 and 1954. He died in Vista, California, in March 1984.

Source: Joseph S. Marriott. Safety Regulations and Air Traffic Control. Interview with John B. Rae, December 27, 1962. Claremont, CA: Oral History Program, Claremont Graduate School, 1962.