Howard M. Baldrige

Howard Malcolm Baldrige or H. Malcolm Baldrige (June 23, 1894 – January 19, 1985) was a Nebraska Republican politician.

Biography

Early life and ancestors

He was born on June 23, 1894 at Omaha, Douglas County, Nebraska,^[1] the son of Nebraska state senator Howard Hammond Baldrige^[2] (1864–1928) and Letitia Blanche Coffey^[3] and died on January 19, 1985, in Southbury, Connecticut.^[4] He is buried at Forest Lawn Cemetery (Omaha) in Omaha.^[5]

Education

He graduated from Omaha High School in 1912. He attended Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, in 1914 and he graduated in 1918 from Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut where he was a member of Skull and Bones^[6] and captain of the wrestling team. He was also a member of Psi Upsilon and was a letterman in football at Yale.

In World War I, he served as captain of Battery F, Three Hundred and Thirty-eighth Field Artillery for the United States. In 1921, he graduated from University of Nebraska–Lincoln College of Law and was admitted to the bar, setting up practice in Omaha.

Marriage and family

On November 30, 1921, he was married to Regina Katherine Connell^[1] at Omaha. She was born at Omaha, Douglas County, Nebraska on September 23, 1896, the daughter of Dr. Ralph Wardlaw Connell^[7] and Katherine E Walsh. She was a 1921 graduate of Wellesley College. Her uncle, William James Connell, was a Nebraska Republican politician and served as a member of the United States House of Representatives for Nebraska's 1st congressional district. Her first cousin, Dr. Karl Albert Connell, invented the gas mask used by American troops during World War I.

They were the parents of three children, Howard Malcolm Baldrige, Jr., born October 4, 1922; Robert Connell Baldrige,^[8] born November 9, 1924, and Letitia Baldrige, born February 9, 1926.

Political career

He served in the Nebraska state house of representatives in 1923 and was a delegate to the 1924 Republican National Convention and the 1928 Republican National Convention. He was elected to the Seventy-second United States Congress as a representative for the second district and served from March 4, 1931, to March 3, 1933. He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1932.^[1]

Post political career

Afterwards, he resumed the practice of law. During the Second World War, he entered the Army on June 10, 1942, and became a major in the United States Army Air Corps. He was discharged as a colonel on October 25, 1945, resuming law practice with offices in New York City and Washington, D.C. He was a resident of Washington, Connecticut, until his death.

Notes

1. Welch 301
2. "Find a Grave". Retrieved 2009-08-10.
3. She was the closest thing Omaha had to a dowager duchess, I suppose-even if she did scandalize Omaha society by leaving her husband and young son for a two-year fling in an apartment in Paris on the avenue Foch in the early 1900s. The rumor was that she had a French lover, and my cousin Keating Coffey heard from his parents that Omaha people talked a lot about it, just as they did about the cigarettes she came home puffing. Ladies did not smoke in those days in the Midwest, only non-ladies did. Baldrige, Letitia. "My Life in the Kennedy White House". Retrieved 2009-08-10.
4. "Obituary of H. Malcolm Baldrige". The New York Times. January 21, 1985. Retrieved 2009-08-10.
5. "Find a Grave". Retrieved 2009-08-10.
6. "Memorabilia Yalensia". The Yale literary magazine 82 (8): 291. 1917.
7. King 385
8. "Obituary of Robert Connell Baldrige". The New York Times. February 22, 2005. Retrieved 2009-08-10.

References

• Cleave, Egbert. Cleave's biographical cyclopaedia of homoeopathic physicians and surgeons. Philadelphia: Galaxy publishing company, 1873.
• King, William Harvey. History of homoeopathy and its institutions in America; their founders, benefactors, faculties, officers, hospitals, alumni, etc., with a record of achievement of its representatives in the world of medicine. New York, Chicago, The Lewis publishing company, 1905.
• Welch, M.J. Douglas County Who's Who in Nebraska, 1940 Published by; Nebraska Press Association - Lincoln, 1940

1. "The Political Graveyard". Baldrige, Howard Malcolm. Retrieved February 2, 2006.
2. "Congressional Bioguide". Baldrige, Howard Malcolm. Retrieved February 2, 2006.

• This article incorporates facts obtained from: Lawrence Kestenbaum, The Political Graveyard

• United States Congress. "Howard M. Baldrige (id: B000082)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.