George Docking

George Docking (born February 23, 1904 in Clay Center , Kansas , † January 20, 1964 in Kansas City , Kansas) was an American politician and from 1957 to 1961 the 35th governor of the state of Kansas.

Early years and political advancement

George Docking studied at the University of Kansas until 1925 . After Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected US President, he moved to his Democratic Party . In 1952 he supported the unsuccessful election campaign of the Democratic presidential candidate and former governor of Illinois, Adlai Stevenson . In 1954, Docking applied for governor of Kansas to no avail. Two years later he managed to win both his party's nomination and the actual gubernatorial elections. Shortly before he took office, there was an affront to the appointment of the Chief Justice of Kansas.

1956 gubernatorial election

In the Republican primaries for the gubernatorial election, Governor Fred Hall was defeated by Warren Shaw. This lost the actual election against George Docking. At the time, Kansas Chief Justice Bill Smith was seriously ill and was considering resigning. Smith was a supporter and friend of Governor Hall. Smith worried that the new governor might appoint a Democrat as chief justice after his resignation. Now Governor Hall and Deputy John McCuish came up with a plan to prevent this from happening. Following the plan, Smith resigned from the Chief Justice on December 31, 1956. He was followed on January 3, 1957 by Governor Hall with his resignation, which took place just eleven days before the end of his term of office. Under the Constitution, McCuish became Governor of Kansas for the remaining eleven days ending January 14, 1957. His first and only official act was the appointment of his predecessor Hall as the new Chief Justice. This approach was legally and politically correct, but it had a negative aftertaste. Many critics condemned this practice as immoral and unethical. The new governor Docking was thus literally thwarted in the question of filling the judicial office.

Kansas Governor

George Docking took office on January 14, 1957. After re-election in 1958, he was the first Democratic governor of Kansas to be re-elected. During his four-year tenure, he had to contend with a Republican majority in the legislature. The main points of contention were tax hikes and rising spending. Docking and the Chancellor of the University of Kansas, Franklin Murphy, waged a three-year political war against each other that eventually ended with Murphy's resignation. In 1960 Docking took part as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention , where John F. Kennedy was nominated as a presidential candidate. George Docking opposed the death penalty, making himself even less popular with Republicans.

Further life

After his tenure ended on January 9, 1961, he became director of the Export-Import Bank in Washington, DC He held this position until his death in 1964. George Docking was married to Mary Virginia Blackwell. The couple had two children, including son Robert Docking , who would also become governor of Kansas for eight years between 1967 and 1975. His grandson Thomas was Lieutenant Governor of Kansas from 1983 to 1987 . The Docking family has remained one of the most prominent Kansas political families to this day.

Web links

• George Docking in the National Governors Association (English)
• Biography at the Kansas Historical Society (English)
• George Docking in the database of Find a Grave (English)