Curriculum-Vitae - Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Curriculum-Vitae
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Born: At his family's estate at Hyde Park, in Dutchess County, New York.
Parents: He was the only child of James Roosevelt and Sara Delano Roosevelt.
James Roosevelt was a moderately successful businessman, with a variety of investments and a special interest in coal. He was also a conservative Democrat who was interested in politics.
Sara Delano, 26 years younger than her previously widowed husband, brought to the marriage a fortune considerably larger than that of James Roosevelt.
Franklin was born into a pleasant and sociable home, with loving parents and congenial, rather aristocratic companions.
Education: His mother supervised his education until he was 14. French-speaking and German-speaking tutors did most of the actual instruction and helped him develop early a talent for those languages.
For further education, he went to Groton School in Massachusetts, which had a reputation as one of the finest of the exclusive private schools that prepared boys for the Ivy League colleges.
From Groton Roosevelt went on to Harvard College. He entered in 1899, and remained until 1904. He took his bachelor's degree in 1903 but returned to Harvard in the fall to serve as editor of the student newspaper, The Crimson.
He then moved to New York City, where he entered the Columbia University Law School in 1904. Although he attended classes until 1907, he failed to stay on for his law degree after passing the state examinations allowing him to practice law.
Marriage: Before he finished his work at Columbia, young Franklin Roosevelt had married his distant cousin Anna Eleanor Roosevelt. They had been in love for some time and were married in spite of the opposition of Franklin's mother in New York City on March 17, 1905
The bride's uncle, President Theodore Roosevelt, was present at the ceremony. Five of their six children grew to maturity: Anna, James, Elliott, Franklin, Jr., and John. The chief problem faced by the young couple during the early years of their marriage was Sara Roosevelt's possessive attitude toward her son. Eleanor's forbearance ...
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Marriage: Before he finished his work at Columbia, young Franklin Roosevelt had married his distant cousin Anna Eleanor Roosevelt. They had been in love for some time and were married in spite of the opposition of Franklin's mother in New York City on March 17, 1905
The bride's uncle, President Theodore Roosevelt, was present at the ceremony. Five of their six children grew to maturity: Anna, James, Elliott, Franklin, Jr., and John. The chief problem faced by the young couple during the early years of their marriage was Sara Roosevelt's possessive attitude toward her son. Eleanor's forbearance mitigated this situation, but the problem remained for many years.
Interests: As a child he developed a passionate interest in natural history and became an ardent bird watcher. He grew to love outdoor sports and became an expert swimmer and a fine sailor.
As a teenager, he was a voracious reader. He was particularly fond of adventure tales, especially those that touched on the sea. He also developed an absorbing interest in stamp collecting, a hobby that taught him both history and geography and that was to afford him pleasure and relaxation during all of his adult life.
At university, but he devoted a great deal of time to extracurricular activities, and his grades suffered as a consequence. He was particularly interested in history and political economy and took courses in those subjects with outstanding professors
Political Career: formally entered politics in 1910, when he became a candidate for the New York State Senate in a district composed of three upstate farming counties. In the early 1890s he was narrowly elected. He was only the second Democrat to represent his district after the emergence of the Republican Party in 1856.
In the state capitol at Albany, Roosevelt gained statewide publicity as the leader of a small group of upstate Democrats who refused to follow the leadership of Tammany Hall, the Democratic Party organization of New York City. He soon became a dedicated social and economic reformer, and a political independent.
He was reelected in 1912, in spite of a case of typhoid fever that kept him from campaigning. Even before his reelection to the New York legislature, Roosevelt had entered the national political arena by taking part in the campaign of Governor Woodrow Wilson of New Jersey for the Democratic nomination for president. Once again the young state senator was a member of a minority group among New York Democrats.
When Wilson won at both the convention and the polls in 1912, his early supporters were rewarded, and Roosevelt became assistant secretary of the United States Navy. Roosevelt resigned his state senate seat and moved to Washington, D.C., to take over the position once occupied by his cousin Theodore Roosevelt.
Franklin Roosevelt's served as assistant secretary from 1913 to 1920. American entry into World War I in 1917 found the navy in relatively good shape. Roosevelt, as the second in command, was particularly concerned with the civilian employees of the department. He made excellent contacts with labor leaders in the course of smoothing relations between the navy and its workers.
He was also involved in the enormous build-up of the naval forces and with the general administration of the department. Frequent public speeches brought him to the attention of the public, and he soon had a reputation as a young man of great promise.
He turned down an opportunity to win the Democratic nomination for governor of New York in 1918 in order to go on a three-month tour of duty in Europe, during which he visited the western front in France. He remained assistant secretary of the navy until August 1920, when he resigned to campaign as the Democratic candidate for vice president.
Roosevelt continued to busy himself with Democratic politics after his illness. In 1922 he aided Alfred E. Smith, who in that year made a successful political comeback and became governor of New York for the second time.
Personal Health: Personal tragedy struck Roosevelt in August 1921, when he contracted what was diagnosed, after an unfortunate delay, as poliomyelitis. He had been plagued by illness of various sorts during the previous decade, and he had overexerted himself swimming and hiking at Campobello.
In great agony and completely unable to walk, Roosevelt seemed to have reached the end of his active public career. Indeed, his mother wanted him to return to Hyde Park for the peace and quiet of the life of a country gentleman. However, backed by the determination of his wife and Louis Howe, Roosevelt decided to return to his work as soon as possible.
In spite of the efforts of numerous specialists and of his strenuous exercises, particularly swimming at his "second home" in Warm Springs, Georgia, he was never again able to walk unaided. He spent most of his working hours in a wheelchair, and he walked with leg braces and canes, usually with help.
Through the worst years of his paralysis, Roosevelt was amazingly cheerful. Eleanor Roosevelt often acted as her husband's eyes and ears, bringing him information and conferring with people he was no longer readily able to meet.