Albert W. Hawkes

Albert W. Hawkes

Albert Wahl Hawkes (born November 20, 1878 in Chicago , Illinois , †  May 9, 1971 in Palm Desert , California ) was an American businessman and politician ( Republican Party ) who represented the state of New Jersey in the US Senate .

Albert Hawkes attended the public schools in his hometown and graduated from Chicago College of Law , the law school of the Lewis Institute , in 1900 . At this college, today's Illinois Institute of Technology , he then studied chemistry for two years; he was also professionally active in this area. During the First World War , he served from 1917 to 1918 as director of the Chemical Alliance , based in Washington . He was later from 1927 to 1942 President of the Kearny- based company Congoleum-Nairn, Inc. , of which he was also Chairman from 1937 .

From 1941 to 1942, Hawkes served as President and Director of the US Chamber of Commerce . During the same period he was a member of an industrial arbitration committee ( Board to maintain Industrial Peace ); he was also a member of the Newark City Working Committee .

When US President Franklin D. Roosevelt revived the National War Labor Board in January 1942 , an independent authority originally created by Woodrow Wilson to control the industrial sector during wartime, Hawkes was also appointed to this body. In the same year he ran as a Republican candidate in the US Senate election and was elected. He sat in Congress from January 3, 1943 to January 3, 1949 and did not run for re-election. As a result, he went back to Montclair to pursue his business interests.

In 1961 Hawkes moved to Pasadena, California and spent the last years of his life there. During this time, he was a board member of the Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge ( Pennsylvania ), a nonprofit educational institution. The local library was later named after him in Hawkes' honor. He died on May 9, 1971 in Palm Desert and was buried in Montclair.

Web links

• Albert W. Hawkes in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)

• Albert W. Hawkes in the database of Find a Grave (English)