Herbert Hoover

Herbert Hoover was born on August 10, 1874 in West Branch, Iowa. His family were devout Quakers. At age eight, Hoover was orphaned and was sent to live with relatives. They showed him little affection, but taught him the importance of hard work and industry.

In 1891, Hoover entered Stanford University's School of Engineering, graduating in 1895. Four years later, he married his wife, Lou Henry and they had two sons, Herbert Jr. and Allan. From an early age, Hoover showed a prodigious talent for engineering and was hired by the engineering firm Bewick and Moering, working in Australia and then in China.

He was in China when the Boxer Rebellion of 1900 broke out and he coordinated the barricades of Americans trapped in China. At age forty, his engineering career was so successful that he was a millionaire.

Dropped to fourth place among the longest-lived U.S. presidents, after been passed by Ronald Reagan (b. February 6, 1911), and Gerald Ford (b. July 14, 1913).

1914 saw the outbreak of World War I in Europe. That was when he left his engineering career and entered public service. He organized a relief effort to feed starving Belgians, known as the Commission for the Relief of Belgium. When the U. S.

entered the war in 1917, President Woodrow Wilson asked Hoover to organize the Food Administration, which encouraged Americans to cut down on food consumption to help the war effort.

After the end of World War I in 1918, Hoover organized a massive relief effort to feed starving peoples in Europe, whose countries had been devastated by the war.

His successor, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, wrote about him in 1920: "He is certainly a wonder and I wish we could make him President of the United States. There could not be a better one.".

From 1921 to 1929, Herbert Hoover served as Secretary of Commerce, under Presidents Harding and Coolidge, expanding the department and making it more active in working with business and labor.

He was partially responsible for Republicans losing popularity among African-Americans. Following the Mississippi river flood in 1927, Hoover, who was already putting his sights on winning the Republican nomination next year, made a deal with prominent African American leaders that They tell blacks to vote for Hoover next year, and he'll champion black causes while in the White House. Hoover never did and the black vote began to leave the Republican Party for Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Democrats.

In 1928, he was the Republican candidate for President and easily defeated his opponent, the Democratic Candidate, Alfred E. Smith.

Herbert Hoover was sworn in as President on March 4, 1929. Seven months after he entered office, the Stock Market crashed, ending the "Roaring Twenties" and the economic boom of that decade and ushered in the Great Depression. At first, Hoover was proactive in handling this economic crisis, having meetings with business leaders on how to weather the economic downturn, cutting taxes and increasing money for corporations and state governments. But none of this was effective in the teeth of the worst economic crisis in American history. He tried to calm the situation with statements like "Prosperity is just around the corner," but they were not effective. His dour demeanor and seemingly callous attitudes towards the millions of unemployed were what people saw in him, particularly when he refused to provide direct relief to the unemployed.

Officially opened Manhattan's Empire State Building by pressing a button at the White House that instantly switched on the skyscraper's lights [May 1, 1931]

Things came to a head in the summer of 1932 when the Bonus Expeditionary Force (BEF), an army of World War I veterans, marched to Washington demanding immediate payment of a bonus promised to them in 1945. But the veterans wanted their money now. They camped out along the Anacostia River and lobbied for their bonus. The House of Representatives approved immediate payment, but the Senate voted no. Hoover obtained $100,000 from Congress to buy the veterans train tickets home. Many veterans accepted the offer, but many stayed in Washington. At that point, the US army led by Gen. Douglas McArthur forcibly evicted the veterans from Washington, setting their camps on fire and forcing them out at gunpoint. In so doing, McArthur disobeyed Presidential orders, but Hoover took full responsibility for the eviction of the Bonus Marchers.

In the 1932 election, Herbert Hoover was defeated in a landslide by Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt.

After he left office in 1933, Hoover returned to California and was an unstinting critic of FDR.

The Hoover Dam (1936) was named after him by then President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

He wanted the United States to pressure Britain and France (and later Free France) to accept Adolf Hitler's peace offers in 1939-41.

He was appalled when Winston Churchill rejected Adolf Hitler's peace offers in July 1940.

After the death of his wife in 1944, Hoover moved to New York City where he lived his last twenty years at the Waldorf Towers, remaining active in Republican Party politics.

Hoover's criticism of "Franklin D. Roosevelt''s New Deal policies as "collectivism" so enraged the four-term president that he refused to allow Hoover any governmental role during World War II, though he wanted to serve his country. After Roosevelt died in 1945, his successor, Harry S. Truman, appointed Hoover to oversee relief efforts in Europe, as he had done so admirably after the First World War. At the time, Hoover was the only living ex-president, and though the two had differing governmental philosophies, Hoover was the only person Truman could turn to for advice about the presidency.

In 1946, President Harry Truman asked him to undertake yet another relief effort for the people of Europe; he and Truman became surprisingly good friends.

His March 1947 report on West Germany was instrumental in ending the implementation of the Morgenthau Plan, which Hoover claimed would lead to genocide with up to 25 million people dying.

In 1949, he declined an offer by New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey to be appointed to the U.S. Senate, due to an unexpected vacancy.

In 1953, Hoover chaired a commission to increase efficiency in the Executive Branch of the Federal Government.

When in the public service, as Secretary of Commerce and as President, he donated all of his salary to charity and public service activities. He did the same in 1958, when $25,000 per year pensions were approved for all former presidents.

Received the National Football Foundation's Gold Medal in 1960.

In his last will and testament, executed in August 1964, he left the bulk of his estate, believed to be worth millions of dollars to a trust established in 1961 for the benefit of his heirs. He also left specific bequests totaling $140,000 to six female secretaries.

Pictured on a 5¢ US commemorative postage stamp issued in his honor, 10 August 1965 (first anniversary of his birthday following his death).

His name is mentioned in the song "Those Were the Days", the opening theme of the TV series All in the Family (1971).

Inducted into the National Mining Hall of Fame, Leadville, Colorado in 1988 (charter member).

Hoover had the longest retirement of any former president until he was surpassed in 2012 by Jimmy Carter.