Stuart Symington

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Senator Stuart Symington

William Stuart Symington, Jr. (born June 26, 1901 in Amherst , Massachusetts , † December 14, 1988 in New Canaan , Connecticut ) was an American businessman , United States Secretary of the Air Force and longtime Senator for Missouri .

biography

University degree, businessman and government official

The son of a lawyer studied after attending Baltimore City College between 1919 and 1923 at Yale University , but without achieving a degree. He did his military service in the US Army , and was last to second lieutenant ( 2nd Lieutenant ) transported.

In 1924 he married Evelyn Wadsworth, the daughter of New York Senator James Wolcott Wadsworth . This marriage enabled him to join one of Wadsworth's companies, making him a millionaire within twelve years . Nonetheless, he continued to work as a businessman in the private sector and became President of the Emerson Electric Company in 1938 , which was at the time in economic difficulties. He held this position until 1945.

After the end of the Second World War , he switched to government service in 1945 and was initially director of the surplus property administration . In 1946 he became an employee in the War Ministry and was there until 1947 Assistant Secretary of War for Air .

Symington while serving as Secretary of the Air Force

After the formation of the United States Department of Defense on July 10, 1947, he was appointed first Secretary of the Air Force by President Harry S. Truman after the establishment of the US Department of the Air Force under the National Security Act on September 18, 1947 . He held this office until April 24, 1950. He was also during this time a member of the National Security Council ( National Security Council ).

He was then chairman of the National Security Resources Board and, between 1951 and 1952, administrator of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation .

Democratic senator and running for president 1960

In 1952 he declined to become commissioner for Major League Baseball . Instead, he ran as a representative of the Democratic Party for a seat in the United States Senate for the state of Missouri . He was able to assert himself as a challenger against the Republican incumbent James Preston Kem and, as his successor, became the holder of the first senatorial seat for Missouri ( Senator Class 1 ). As such, he was a member of the US Senate from January 3, 1953 until his resignation on December 27, 1973. He succeeded in re-election in 1958, 1964 and 1970.

When he was re-elected to the Senate in 1958, he won 66.4% of the vote. In the 1950s, when a senator rarely received more than 55% of the vote, it was "more than a landslide". As a result, the question immediately arose in the press whether "Symington has what it takes to be a presidential candidate". On September 6, 1959, he announced that he would run in the 1960 presidential election in the United States . His contestants for the Democratic Party presidential nomination were John F. Kennedy , Lyndon B. Johnson , Hubert H. Humphrey , Adlai Stevenson , Wayne Morse , George Smathers, and a few other hopeless politicians. The strategy of his campaign team was to win over the "kingmakers", the party bosses in important states, for Symington: Carmine DeSapio and Michael Prendergast in New York, Jake Arvey in Chicago, David Lawrence in Pennsylvania and others. Symington was convincing in a small circle, but found it difficult when he should address crowds. Although he could not win in a single state in the primary elections, he received the third-most votes at the nomination party conference of the Democrats in Los Angeles from July 11 to 15, 1960 with 86 votes after Kennedy (806 votes) and Johnson (409 votes) .

After his retirement from the US Senate, Symington was president of the National Cathedral Association , an organization that financially supported the Washington National Cathedral, from 1974 to 1977 . Most recently, he was Vice Chairman of First American Bankshares from 1980 until his death in 1988 .

Symington appeared on January 19, 1948 under the heading Secretary Symington and on November 24, 1958 under the heading Candidate Symington on the cover of the news magazine TIME and on May 9, 1960 under the heading Candidate Stu Symington on the cover of the news magazine Newsweek . The 1977 amendment to the Foreign Assistance Act ( Symington Amendment ) was named after him.

family

His eldest son James was a member of the US House of Representatives for Missouri's 2nd constituency between 1969 and 1977 .

Web links

Commons : Stuart Symington  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Theodore H. White: The making of the president 1960 . Cape, London 1962, p. 129.
  2. ^ Theodore H. White: The making of the president 1960 . Cape, London 1962, p. 36.
  3. ^ Theodore H. White: The making of the president 1960 . Cape, London 1962, p. 37.
  4. ^ Theodore H. White: The making of the president 1960 . Cape, London 1962, p. 39.
  5. ^ Theodore H. White: The making of the president 1960 . Cape, London 1962, p. 40.
personal data
SURNAME Symington, Stuart
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Symington, William Stuart Junior (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American politician
DATE OF BIRTH June 26, 1901
PLACE OF BIRTH Amherst , Massachusetts
DATE OF DEATH December 14, 1988
Place of death New Canaan , Connecticut