Wendell Willkie

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Wendell Lewis Willkie (born Lewis Wendell Willkie; February 18, 1892 – October 8, 1944) was an American lawyer, corporate executive, and 1940 Republican nominee for President Wendell Willkie (born Lewis Wendell Willkie; January 18, 1892 – October 8, 1944).

Willkie's appeal to several convention delegates as the Republican field's only interventionist: although the US remained neutral prior to Pearl Harbor, he favored greater involvement in World War II to help Britain and other Allies.

With about 55% of the popular vote and a narrow margin, his Democratic adversary, incumbent President Franklin D. Roosevelt, won the 1940 election by a wide margin. Willkie was born in Elwood, Indiana, in 1892; both his parents were doctors, and he later became one.

He served in World War I, but was not sent to France until the final days of the war, but saw no progress.

Willkie retired from Firestone, Ohio, but decided on a law firm, becoming one of the Akron Bar Association's chiefs.

Willkie began working in 1929 as the counsel for Commonwealth & Southern Corporation (C&S), a utility holding company, for a large portion of his career.

Youth, education and World War I service

Lewis Wendell Willkie was born in Elwood, Indiana, on February 18, 1892, the son of Henrietta (Trisch) and Herman Francis Willkie. Both of his parents were lawyers, with his mother being one of the first women to be admitted to the Indiana bar. His father was born in Germany, the grandson of Joseph Wilhelm Willecke or Willcke, 1826. His mother was born in Indiana to German parents; his grandparents were instrumental in Germany's failed 1848 revolutions. The Trisches landed in Kansas Territory at first, but after the territory was opened to slavery in the mid-1950s, they moved to Indiana, as they were abolitionists. Willkie was the fourth of six children, all intelligent and learned to speak English at the dinner table, which would later serve him well.

Despite being given the first name Lewis, Willkie was known from childhood by his middle name. Herman Willkie, who came from Prussia with his parents at the age of four, was very involved in progressive politics, and in 1896, his sons were welcomed in a torchlight parade for Democratic presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan, who had come to Elwood for his campaign. Bryant lost his to William McKinley as a Willkie boy competed for Republican youth on the sidewalk, and although the Willkies won their battle, the Willkies lost their battle. When Bryan ran again in 1900, he stayed overnight at the Willkie home, and the Democratic nominee for president became the first political hero for the boy who would run for president later this year.

Willkie's parents were worried about a lack of discipline and a small stoop, so they sent him to Culver Military Academy for a summer in an attempt to remedy both. Willkie began to excel as a student in high school, inspired by his English tutor; one classmate said that Philip "Pat" Bing "fixed" him up. "He started preaching to Wendell, and the boy went to school." Faced with a group of athletic brothers—Edward became an Olympic wrestler—Willkie joined the football team but had no success; he loved the debate team more, but was disciplined multiple times for instigating with teachers. He was president of the most influential fraternity in his final year, but resigned from the former when a sorority blackballed his mother, Gwyneth Harry, as the daughter of immigrants.

He worked, often far away from home, during Willkie's summer vacations from high school. His journey took him from Aberdeen, South Dakota, where he went from dishwasher to co-owner of a flophouse to Yellowstone National Park, where he was fired after losing track of the horses drawing a tourist stagecoach. Herman Willkie was back in Elwood, representing out-workers at the local tin plate factory, and he and Wendell traveled to Chicago in August in the hopes of getting liberal attorney Clarence Darrow to take over the office. They found Darrow helpful but at a price that is too high for the union to attend; Darrow told Wendell Willkie, "there is nothing unethical in being adequately compensated for promoting a cause in which you deeply believe."

Willkie enrolled at Indiana University in Bloomington after graduating from Elwood High in January 1910. He became a student rebel, chewing cigarettes, reading Marx, and urging the faculty to include a course on socialism in the curriculum. Willkie became heavily involved in campus politics, successfully coordinating the campaign of future Indiana governor Paul McNutt for student office, but he was defeated as he ran himself. He began working in June 1913 and went on to earn money for law school, taught high school history in Coffeyville, Kansas, coaching debaters, and several sports teams. He left his job as a lab assistant in Puerto Rico in November 1914, as arranged by his brother Fred. Wendell Willkie's commitment to social justice was deepened by the sight of workers abused here.

In late 1915, Willkie was accepted at the Indiana School of Law. He was a top student and graduated in 1916 with high honors. He made a provocative speech condemning his school at the commencement ceremony, with the state supreme court present. The professor kept his degree but gave it after two days of ferious discussion. Willkie joined his parents' law firm but served with the United States Army on April 2, 1917, the day President Woodrow Wilson ordered Parliament to order a declaration of war against Germany. An army clerk mistook his first two names; with Willkie's inability to have the bureaucracy correct, he kept his name as Wendell Lewis Willkie. Willkie was sent for artillery education after being first lieutenant. He arrived in France as the war was winding down and did not see combat. He married Edith Wilk, a librarian from Rushville, Indiana, in January 1918; the pair had one son, Philip. Willkie was sent by France to assist soldiers who had slipped away for time in Paris against orders. He had been recommended for promotion to captain but he was fired in early 1919 before the paperwork was processed.

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