Lehman, Herbert

Description

Autograph ID: 4651
Condition: Very good
Description: (1878-1963) New York Governor 1933-42, Senator 1949-57. Son of German Jewish immigrant Mayer Lehman, one of the founders of the Lehman Brothers investment banking firm. Graduate of Williams College (Class of 1899), Lehman Brothers partner 1908. WW I US Army Colonel. Resigned from Lehman Brothers on election as Lieutenant Governor 1929 (under FDR) served 4 terms as the Governor 1933-42. Strong supporter of President Roosevelt’s “New Deal” policies, implemented program in the same spirit in New York. Resigned 1942 when appointed Director of Foreign Relief and Rehabilitation Operations for the State Department. He was Director General of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration 1943-46. He was the first (until 2007 inauguration of Eliot Spitzer) Jewish Governor of New York. Awarded Presidential Medal of Freedom posthumously 1963. Lehman College of the City University of New York is named after him, as are numerous buildings at colleges and universities in New York and a dormitory at alma mater Williams College.

TLS as Senator on 10 ½ x 8 “United States Senate/ Committee on Labor and Public Welfare” letterhead, Washington, March 8 1950, to a New York State school principal, acknowledging his letter of March 2nd. Senator Lehman has contacted the Division of Exchange of Person (sic), Department of State on his behalf and will advise him as soon as the report is received. With 3/16/50 TLS of Assistant Secretary of State Jack K. McFall to Senator Lehman regarding opportunities for teaching abroad under the Fulbright Act, and the Office of Education has been requested to supply the principal with the information requested. Attached to McFall’s letter is a 5 ¼ x 4 March 17, 1950 TNS on a United States Senate Memorandum sheet with a stamped signature of Sen. Lehman, sending the McFall letter.

Jack K. McFall (1905-1990) US diplomat. In 1929, McFall graduated with a bachelor’s degree in foreign service from the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service. While attending Georgetown, McFall in 1928 worked for the House Committee on Appropriations. He was admitted to the bar of the District of Columbia in 1933 and worked on the staff of the Appropriations Committee until WW II when he joined the Navy. He returned to the staff of the Appropriations Committee at the end of the war. McFall succeeded in joining the Foreign Service in 1947, and was a Foreign Service Officer in Montreal 1947-49 and in Athens in 1949. Later in 1949, President Truman nominated McFall as Assistant Secretary of State for Legislative Affairs. On Sept. 9, 1952, President Truman nominated him as Minister to Finland. In 1954, the legation in Helsinki was upgraded to an embassy, and McFall became a full Ambassador, serving until Sept. 19, 1955. He retired in 1956 and served as a member of the Board of Governors of the Washington Institute of Foreign Affairs.
Type: Letter