Arthur E. Summerfield

Arthur Ellsworth Summerfield (* 17th March 1899 in Pinconning , Bay County , Michigan ; †  26. April 1972 in West Palm Beach , Florida ) was an American politician ( Republican Party ), who in the cabinet of President Dwight D. Eisenhower eight Served as US Secretary of State for many years .

Life

Arthur Summerfield left school at the age of 13 to work in a factory. By 1918 he had already made it to a position as inspector at the Chevrolet plant in Flint . The following year he founded Summerfield Realty , which made him the largest independent motor oil dealer in Michigan. In 1929 Summerfield opened his own Chevrolet dealership. By 1953 he established himself as one of the most successful car dealers in Michigan.

Arthur Ellsworth Summerfield was married to Miriam Summerfield and had two children with her.

politics

He first became politically active in 1940 when he organized the campaign of the Republican candidate Wendell Willkie in the presidential election . He later applied for public office himself, but was unsuccessful. In 1942 Summerfield failed in the election to Secretary of State of Michigan, in 1946 he was defeated in the election to governor of the state.

For this he rose within the Republican Party. From 1944 he was a member of the Republican National Committee , which he chaired in 1952. In this capacity he was responsible for the election campaign of the presidential candidate Dwight D. Eisenhower. After the election victory, he resigned the party chairmanship to enter the government as Postmaster General .

During his tenure, Summerfield made great contributions to delivery efficiency, and experimented with new delivery methods. Non-economic post offices and delivery routes were shut down; A system was created for this, with which more than 300,000 farms in the country were supplied free of charge ( rural free delivery system ).

However, the minister also drew criticism by attempting to exclude writings labeled “obscene” from being served. For example, he prohibited the extradition of DH Lawrence's novel Lady Chatterley's Lover . In court, however, the government failed, so the service ban expired in 1959.

With the end of Eisenhower's presidency, Arthur Summerfield also left the government. He then worked again in the car dealership.

literature

• Arthur E. Summerfield , in: Internationales Biographisches Archiv 22/1972 from May 22, 1972, in the Munzinger Archive ( beginning of article freely accessible)

Web links

• Arthur Summerfield in the database of Find a Grave (English)
• Arthur Summerfield in the Miller Center of Public Affairs of the University of Virginia (English)
• The Political Graveyard

Individual evidence

1. ^ Arthur E. Summerfield, born 1899 - Ancestry. Retrieved August 16, 2017 (American English).