“If I could write my own epitaph and if I had to choose between saying,”
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Wendell Willkie
Wendell Lewis Willkie was an American lawyer, corporate executive and the 1940 Republican nominee for president of the United States. Willkie appealed to many convention delegates as the Republican field's only interventionist: although the U.S. remained neutral prior to Pearl Harbor, he favored greater U.S. involvement in World War II to support Britain and other Allies. His Democratic opponent,…
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business · American lawyer and corporate executive (1892–1944) · politician · lawyer · writer · businessperson · jurist · also Wendell Willkie, Wendell Lewis Willkie, Lewis Wendell Willkie, Willkie
Born 18 February 1892 · Died 8 October 1944 · Q698714
44 published statements · 0 followers
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2026· 4 entries
“I hear he is going to Russia before the Republican [state] convention, so he will be where he belongs and I hope he stays there until Christmas”
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“I want to do all I can to get the United States to give England the utmost aid possible in her struggle”
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“transformed Willkie from a big-business critic of the New Deal into a champion of freedom. And it gave his candidacy new purpose.”
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2025· 1 entry
insider.si.edu: Button, Wendell Willkie, 1940
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2022· 1 entry
The Atlantic: The Ordeal of Wendell Willkie
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2019· 1 entry
New York Magazine: Wendell Willkie
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1992· 1 entry
The United States Postal Service marked the centennial of Willkie's birth with a 75-cent stamp in the Great Americans series
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1965· 1 entry
Indiana University completed Willkie Quadrangle, an 11-story undergraduate residence hall, on the Bloomington campus that was named after Willkie
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1944· 3 entries
Died 1944-10-08.
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But bowed out after a disastrous showing in the Wisconsin primary in April
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Campaign: 1944 presidential election.
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1943· 2 entries
The Supreme Court ruled for Schneiderman, 5–3, restoring his citizenship
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Worked with Walter White, executive secretary of the NAACP, to try to convince Hollywood to give blacks better treatment in films
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1942· 5 entries
Soon after making his reports to Roosevelt and the American people, Willkie argued the case of Schneiderman v
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Willkie made a "Report to the People", telling Americans about his trip in a radio speech heard by about 36 million people
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One of the most prominent politicians to do so up to that point
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The Republicans gained seats in both the House and the Senate
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And his abrupt death in 1944, was coined the "Willkie moment" by historian Samuel Zipp and represented the "high point for American visions of war time internationalism
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1941· 3 entries
Willkie offered his full support to Roosevelt
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The evening before Roosevelt's third swearing-in
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Which helped the president to pass Lend-Lease to send supplies to the United Kingdom and other Allied nations
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1940· 8 entries
Election lost: 1940 presidential election.
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Confident that even if he lost his presidential bid, he would not lack for work
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Campaign: 1940 presidential election.
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“We The People: A Foundation for a Political Platform for Recovery”
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Many Republicans did not wish to nominate an isolationist like Robert A
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Announced that he would accept the Republican nomination if it were offered to him
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Though he had won in all parts of the state except Milwaukee
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Would have turned its back on Great Britain, causing all who resisted Hitler to feel abandoned"
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1938· 1 entry
Debated Assistant Attorney General Robert H
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1936· 1 entry
Said, and he felt that the Democrats no longer represented the values he advocated
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1929· 2 entries
Cobb offered Willkie a salary of $36,000 (equal to $675,000 today) to be corporate counsel to C&S, a job which would involve a move to New York, and Willkie accepted
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Willkie accepted a job in New York City as counsel for Commonwealth & Southern Corporation (C&S), a utility holding company
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1925· 2 entries
Became president of the Akron Bar Association
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Willkie led a successful effort to oust Klan members on the Akron school board
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1920· 2 entries
Willkie joined leading Akron law firm Mather & Nesbitt, which represented several local public utilities
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No Republican candidate had ever lost support from the previous ballot and won the nomination
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1917· 1 entry
The day President Woodrow Wilson asked Congress for a declaration of war against Germany
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1909· 1 entry
Aged 17, his journey took him from Aberdeen, South Dakota, where he rose from dishwasher to co-owner of a flophouse, to Yellowstone National Park, where he was fired after losing control of the horses drawing a tourist s
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1900· 1 entry
Stayed overnight at the Willkie home, and the Democratic candidate for president became the first political hero for the boy who would later seek that office
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1896· 1 entry
Took his sons to a torchlight procession for Democratic presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan, who had come to Elwood during his campaign
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1892· 2 entries
To Henrietta (Trisch) and Herman Francis Willkie
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Born 1892-02-18.
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