Arthur J. Altmeyer

Arthur Altmeyer
Altmeyer (center) presiding over an early meeting of the Social Security Board, 1937
Commissioner of the Social Security Administration
In office July 16, 1946 – April 10, 1953
President	Harry S. Truman Dwight D. Eisenhower
Preceded by	Himself (SSB Chair)
Succeeded by	William Mitchell (Acting)
Chair of the Social Security Board
In office February 19, 1937 – July 16, 1946
President	Franklin D. Roosevelt Harry S. Truman
Preceded by	John Winant
Succeeded by	Himself (SSA Commissioner)
In office September 30, 1936 – November 16, 1936 Acting
President	Franklin D. Roosevelt
Preceded by	John Winant
Succeeded by	John Winant
Personal details
Born	(1891-05-08)May 8, 1891 De Pere, Wisconsin, U.S.
Died	October 16, 1972(1972-10-16) (aged 81) Madison, Wisconsin, U.S.
Political party	Democratic
Education	University of Wisconsin, Madison (BA, MA, PhD)

Arthur J. Altmeyer (May 8, 1891 – October 16, 1972) was the United States Commissioner for Social Security from 1946 to 1953, and chairman of the Social Security Board from 1937 to 1946. He was a key figure in the design and implementation of the U.S. Social Security system.

Altmeyer was born in DePere, Wisconsin on May 8, 1891, and developed an early interest in social security while working as an office boy in his uncle's law office. For a while he was a public school teacher and school principal and also attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison, graduating with a B.A. in 1914. In 1918, he re-entered the University as a graduate student, where he studied with John R. Commons, one of a handful of American economists versed in social insurance who was actively interested in workers' compensation, unemployment insurance and health insurance. Altmeyer became interested in social and labor policies when he learned about Commons' role as the principal author of Wisconsin's workmen's compensation program, which was then the only one in the United States. They and others at Wisconsin were proponents of the progressive, liberal social policy of a positive and vigorous role for government. In 1918, Altmeyer became Commons' graduate research assistant. Together they co-authored a report on "The Health Insurance Movement in the United States" for the Illinois Health Insurance Commission and the Ohio Health and Old Age Insurance Commission. Altmeyer was also working for the Wisconsin State Tax Commission and the Wisconsin Industrial Commission, while working on his M.A. which was granted in 1921, and his PhD in economics, which was granted in 1931.

Altmeyer became Chief Statistician of the Wisconsin Industrial Commission in 1920 working under Edwin E. Witte. Altmeyer founded a monthly publication, the Wisconsin Labor Market, which was second such publications in the U.S. In 1922, after Witte had moved on, Altmeyer was appointed to his position as Secretary of the Wisconsin Industrial Commission, a position he held, with one interim, until 1932. In this position Altmeyer oversaw Wisconsin's worker's compensation program and developed and implemented the state's unemployment insurance system which was the first of its kind in the U.S. In 1927, he went on leave to assume a temporary federal position in the Great Lakes Region with responsibility for implementing the Longshoremen's and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act.