Thomas J. Dodd | |
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United States Senator from Connecticut |
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In office January 3, 1959 – January 3, 1971 |
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Preceded by | William A. Purtell |
Succeeded by | Lowell P. Weicker, Jr. |
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Connecticut's 1st district |
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In office January 3, 1953 – January 3, 1957 |
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Preceded by | Abraham A. Ribicoff |
Succeeded by | Edwin H. May, Jr. |
Personal details | |
Born |
Thomas Joseph Dodd May 15, 1907 Norwich, Connecticut |
Died | May 24, 1971 Old Lyme, Connecticut |
(aged 64)
Political party | Democratic |
Spouse(s) | Grace Mary Murphy |
Alma mater |
Saint Anselm College Providence College Yale Law School |
Thomas Joseph Dodd (May 15, 1907 – May 24, 1971) was a United States Senator and Representative from Connecticut, He is the father of former U.S. Senator Christopher Dodd and Thomas J. Dodd, Jr., who served as the United States Ambassador to Uruguay from 1993 to 1997 and to Costa Rica from 1997 to 2001 .
Dodd was born in Norwich, New London County, to Abigail Margaret (née O'Sullivan) and Thomas Joseph Dodd, a building contractor; all four of his grandparents were immigrants from Ireland. His paternal grandparents were farmers in the Housatonic river valley with large commercial tobacco leaf farms located near Kent and New Milford. He graduated from Saint Anselm College's preparatory school, run by Benedictine monks in Goffstown, New Hampshire, in 1926. He graduated from Providence College in 1930 with a degree in philosophy, and from Yale Law School in 1933. In 1934, Dodd married Grace Murphy of Westerly, Rhode Island. They had six children.
He served as a special agent for the Federal Bureau of Investigation in 1933 and 1934, the highlight of his career there being his participation in an unsuccessful attempt to capture John Dillinger at Little Bohemia Lodge. He was then Connecticut director of the National Youth Administration from 1935 to 1938. He was assistant to five successive United States Attorneys General (Homer Cummings, Frank Murphy, Robert Jackson, Francis Biddle and Tom Clark) from 1938 to 1945.