Clair Engle

Clair Engle

Clair Engle (born September 21, 1911 in Bakersfield , California , † July 30, 1964 in Washington, DC ) was an American politician of the Democratic Party . He represented the State of California in both houses of Congress .

biography

Early life

Clair Engle attended State Teachers College in Chico until 1930 and graduated from Hastings College of the Law at the University of California in 1933 , where he had studied law . He briefly practiced in Corning , a small town in Tehama County , until he was appointed district attorney for the county in 1934.

Member of the Congress

Engle remained in that office until 1943, when he was elected to the United States House of Representatives on August 31 as representative of California's second congressional electoral district. Engle was re-elected six times in a row and left Congress in 1959. Engle took on a number of important positions in the Congress itself. From 1945 to 1947 he was chairman of the Committee on War Claims , a committee that had set itself the goal of financially settling war damage, including that in Europe, as quickly as possible. Between 1955 and his departure from Congress in 1959, he was also chairman of the Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs , whose main task at that time was to integrate the Hawaii Territory as a state into the USA, a project that succeeded in 1959.

US Senator

Engle was elected to the US Senate in 1958 and took up his new mandate on January 3, 1959. But his term of office was to be short and was overshadowed in 1963 by the diagnosis that he was suffering from an incurable brain tumor . Although he was soon partially paralyzed and missed several Senate meetings due to health reasons, he remained in office.

On June 10, 1964 during the drafting of the Civil Rights Act , Engle had come to the podium and should talk to the Senate. But the brain tumor had already attacked the language center of the brain. Nine days later, the bill was passed by the Senate under President Lyndon B. Johnson .

death

Clair Engle died a month and a half after his pathetic appearance before the US Senate at the age of only 52. He is buried in Red Bluff , California .

Others

The Trinity Lake in California was still in the year 1964 in Clair Engle Lake renamed. However, this name was hardly known outside of America as well as within the USA, so that it was renamed Trinity Lake again in 1997 . Another reason, the authorities say, is the lake's association with the Trinity Dam and the Trinity River . That connection would be lost with the name Clair Engle Lake .

Web links

• Clair Engle in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)