Edwin E. Witte

Edwin Emil Witte (January 4, 1887 – May 20, 1960) was an economist who focused on social insurance issues for the state of Wisconsin and for the Committee on Economic Security. While the executive director of the President's Committee on Economic Security under U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, he developed during 1934 the policies and the legislation that became the Social Security Act of 1935. Because of this he is sometimes called "the father of Social Security".

Witte was born in the Moravian community of Ebenezer, Wisconsin, about four miles south of Watertown. He was recognized from an early age as having remarkable intelligence, such that his parents sent him to high school in Watertown. He graduated as the valedictorian of his class and also became the first person in his family to attend college.

He graduated from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1909 with a B.A. in history and immediately began graduate work. His adviser, Frederick Jackson Turner, left Madison in 1910 for Harvard, but recommended that Witte continue studying history under John R. Commons of the economics department. This advice turned Witte to the study of economics. Because Commons at this time was heavily involved in advising Robert M. La Follette Sr., and the government of Wisconsin (see Wisconsin Idea), Witte easily found work with the state upon completion of his coursework in 1911. Witte was soon overwhelmed with work; he completed his qualifying exams in 1916 but did not return to his dissertation studies until the mid-1920s. He eventually completed his doctorate in ecenomics in 1927.

Witte married Florence Rimsnider, a librarian who worked at the Legislative Reference Library. The couple lived on Madison Street; they had one son and two daughters.

Witte's first job for the state of Wisconsin was as a statistician of workmen's compensation insurance rates for the Wisconsin Industrial Commission. His work here led the Wisconsin Legislature to grant the Commission authority to regulate those rates.

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