Thomas M. Storke

Thomas M. Storke

The 53 meter high Storke Tower on the campus of the University of California at Santa Barbara bears the name of Thomas M. Storke

Thomas More Storke (born November 23, 1876 in Santa Barbara , California ; † October 12, 1971 ibid) was an American politician who briefly represented the state of California in the US Senate .

Life

Thomas More Storke was the only son among four children of Charles A. Storke and his wife Martha. He grew up in prosperity as his father worked as a lawyer and served as the mayor of Santa Barbara from 1899 to 1902.

After attending compulsory schools, Storke enrolled at Stanford University , Stanford , from which he graduated in 1898. He then began to work as a journalist and editor for various newspapers, before he acquired the Santa Barbara Daily Independent newspaper in early 1900 . In 1913 he also bought the Santa Barbara Daily News , and after the merger founded the Santa Barbara Daily News & Independent that same year . In September 1932 he also acquired the Morning Press , and renamed the company, after the successful merger in 1938, the Santa Barbara News-Press . In parallel to his work in the Santa Barbara media landscape, Storke also worked as a farmer and farmer of citrus fruits .

Thomas Storke was not a professional politician. He held his first public office from 1914 to 1921, when he was elected postmaster of Santa Barbara. After the resignation of William Gibbs McAdoo in November 1938, McAdoo recommended Governor Frank Merriam his friend Thomas M. Storke to succeed him in the United States Senate. Storke, the party member of the Democrats was only two months belonged to the Congress on. In early January 1939 he was replaced by Sheridan Downey .

After leaving the Senate, he founded the radio station KTMS in 1947 . In 1951, Governor Earl Warren appointed him to the California Crime Commission , before he was elected to the Board of Directors of the University of California, Santa Barbara by his successor Goodwin Knight in 1955 . This awarded him an honorary doctorate in 1960 , which was followed by another honorary doctorate from Colby College in Waterville ( Maine ) in 1963 .

In the 1960s, Storke also wrote articles against the rise of the anti-communist right-wing John Birch Society , especially its founder Robert Welch . For this he received the Lauterbach Award from the Nieman Foundation in November 1961 , the Pulitzer Prize in May 1962 and the Elijah Lovejoy Fellowship for his outstanding journalism in the same year .

Thomas M. Storke died in October 1971 at the age of 94.

Web links

• Thomas M. Storke in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)