John R. Steelman
| John Steelman | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| White House Chief of Staff | |
|
In office December 12, 1946 – January 20, 1953 |
|
| President | Harry S. Truman |
| Preceded by | Position established |
| Succeeded by | Sherman Adams |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
John Roy Steelman June 23, 1900 Thornton, Arkansas, U.S |
| Died | July 14, 1999 (aged 99) Naples, Florida, U.S. |
| Resting place | Arlington National Cemetery |
| Political party | Republican |
| Education |
Henderson State University (BA) Vanderbilt University (MA) University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (PhD) |
John Roy Steelman (June 23, 1900 – July 14, 1999) was first person to serve as "The Assistant to the President of the United States", in the administration of President Harry S. Truman from 1946 to 1953. The office later became the White House Chief of Staff.
He was the only White House Chief of Staff to serve the full term of a president. He also holds the record for the longest term as Chief of Staff at six years.
John Roy Steelman was born on a farm in Thornton, Arkansas, the son of Martha Ann (née Richardson) and Pleasant C. Steelman. After graduating from high school, he served in World War I. To save money for college tuition, he held jobs that included bookkeeping, logging and agriculture. He rode the railways to Wichita, Kansas, to work in the wheat fields and proudly recalled his time as a blanket stiff, the label used among hobos for a migrant laborer who carried his blanket with him.
Steelman was a descendant of Olof Persson Stille, an immigrant to New Sweden and chief justice of one of its courts, some of whose descendents Anglicized their surname from Stille to Steelman.
Steelman attended Henderson Brown College in Arkadelphia, Arkansas and graduated in 1922. He later went to Vanderbilt University, where he earned his MA in 1924. He received his Ph.D. in 1928 from University of North Carolina in economics and sociology. He was Professor of Sociology and Economics in Alabama College in Montevallo, Alabama from 1928–1934.
After completing his Ph.D., Steelman embarked on a career in academia. He served as an instructor at Harvard University before becoming a professor of sociology at Alabama College. Frances Perkins, then Secretary of Labor, delivered the commencement address there in 1934. She met Steelman and admired his recent settlement of a labor dispute in Mobile, Alabama. Ken Hechler describes how impressed Perkins was with "the huge, open-faced, smiling man who taught economics but talked like a down-to-earth fellow...he seemed to know what he was talking about on all the labor issues that interested Secretary Perkins." She convinced him to join the federal government as a member of the United States Conciliation Service, which assisted in settling labor disputes, and later became the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (United States). After three years he became Commissioner of Conciliation.
...
Wikipedia