William Henry Vanderbilt III

William Henry Vanderbilt

William Henry Vanderbilt III (born November 24, 1901 in New York City , † April 14, 1981 in Williamstown , Massachusetts ) was an American politician and governor of the state of Rhode Island from 1939 to 1941 .

Early years and political advancement

William Vanderbilt was a descendant of Cornelius Vanderbilt , who was a shipowner and railroad magnate in the 19th century and who had built up his own business empire. His parents were Alfred and Elsie Vanderbilt, his father died in 1915 when the Lusitania sank . William attended St. George's School in Middletown and the Evans School in Mesa ( Arizona ). During the First World War , he served in the US Navy . After the war he continued his education with a degree at Princeton University . In 1925, William Vanderbilt founded the Automotive Transportation Company , which operated railways and bus routes in the southern New England states . The money needed for this came from the Vanderbilt family inheritance .

William Vanderbilt was a member of the Republican Party . Between 1929 and 1935 he was a member of the Rhode Island Senate . In 1936 he failed in the gubernatorial election of his party. In the gubernatorial elections of 1938 he was more successful. He not only won his party's nomination, but also the actual election that followed.

Governor of Rhode Island

Vanderbilt took up his new post on January 3, 1939. In an effort to make the government more effective, he laid off over 400 civil servants. The fact that he filled some government offices with members of the Democratic Party whom he considered more capable than eventual Republicans angered many of his party friends. This and a wiretapping scandal contributed to his being voted out of office in 1940. So he had to give up on January 7, 1941 his office to the Democrat J. Howard McGrath .

Another résumé

During World War II , William Vanderbilt rejoined the US Navy and was stationed in the Panama Canal Zone . He then became a board member of the New York Central Railroad Company , which was part of the family empire of the Vanderbilts. In 1960 he was a member of a commission that examined campaign expenses and donations. He was also a curator at Vanderbilt University . William Vanderbilt died in April 1981 in Williamstown, where he had bought a farm. He was married three times and had four children in total.

Web links

• William Vanderbilt III in the National Governors Association (English)