Anthony Dimond

Anthony Joseph Dimond (born November 30, 1881 in Palatine Bridge , Montgomery County , New York , † May 28, 1953 in Anchorage , Alaska ) was an American politician . Between 1933 and 1945 he represented the Alaska Territory in the US House of Representatives as a delegate .

Early years

Anthony Dimond attended public schools in his home country and St. Mary's Catholic Institute in Amsterdam, New York State. Between 1900 and 1903 he was a school teacher in Montgomery County. From 1904 to 1912 he was a gold digger and mine owner in Alaska . After studying law, he was admitted to the bar in 1913. He then started to work in his new profession in Valdez .

Political career

Dimond became a member of the Democratic Party . From 1913 to 1914 he was a federal civil servant in Chisana . In 1917, Dimond was working for the Federal District Attorney in the third legal district. Between 1920 and 1922 and again from 1925 to 1932 he was mayor of Valdez. He was also a member of the territorial senate from 1923 to 1926 and from 1929 to 1932.

In the 1932 congressional election, Anthony Dimond was elected as a delegate to the US House of Representatives in Washington . After a few re-elections, he was able to exercise this mandate for a total of six legislative terms between March 4, 1933 and January 3, 1945. In 1936 and 1940 he was a delegate to the Democratic National Conventions , each of which Franklin D. Roosevelt was nominated as a presidential candidate. In 1940 Dimond successfully opposed a presidential plan to make Alaska an International Jewish Homeland . That brought him the accusation of being anti-Semitic. In 1944 he declined to run for Congress again .

After serving in the federal capital in January 1945, Anthony Dimond became a district judge in the Alaska Territory. He held this office until his death in 1953. Even today in Alaska on November 30th, Dimond's birthday, the so-called Anthony Dimond Day is celebrated.

Web links

• Anthony Dimond in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)

• Anthony Dimond in the database of Find a Grave (English)