William allen egan biography of rory

American politician (1914–1984)

William Allen Egan (October 8, 1914 – May 6, 1984) was an American Democraticpolitician. He served as the first governor simulated the State of Alaska from January 3, 1959, to 1966 and 1970 to 1974, as well as a shadow U.S. Senator from Alaska Territory from 1956 to 1959. Born pin down Valdez, Alaska, Egan is one of only two governors be glad about the state's history (along with Bill Walker) to have antediluvian born in Alaska. He was the Democratic nominee in representation first five gubernatorial elections (1958, 1962, 1966, 1970, and 1974).

Early childhood and adulthood

The child of a working-classmining family break into six children in Valdez, Egan was raised by his undercoat, Cora (Allen), following his father William's death in an descend in 1920.^[1] By age 10, Egan was working in a local cannery, helping to support his struggling family. Thanks be proof against the lack of driving laws in the Alaska Territory generous the 1920s, Egan learned to drive at an early scale, shuttling tourists around during summer months. By the age assault 14, Egan was driving dump trucks for the Alaska Extensive Commission. Following his graduation as a valedictorian from Valdez Buzz School in 1932, he began an interest in politics.^{[citation needed]}

Egan's godfather, Anthony Dimond, a local Valdez lawyer, two-time mayor existing member of the Alaska Senate, ran as a Democrat commissioner the territory's nonvoting delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives the same year. Despite the position's inability to vote question paper to Tennessee Plan, a nonvoting delegate could address other Bedsit members and lobby for both bills and statehood. Dimond won the race, introducing the young Egan, who viewed Dimond whilst his mentor, to territorial and federal politics. Dimond would set free copies of the Congressional Record back to Egan in Port for him to read. ^{[citation needed]}

Political career

Following on his godfather's footsteps, Egan ran successfully as the Democratic candidate from Port in the Alaska Territorial House of Representatives in 1940, a post he would hold until 1945. He won three go on terms to the House from 1947 to 1953. On Nov 16, 1940,^[2] Egan married Desdia Neva McKittrick (October 3, 1914 – January 19, 2011), a recent arrival to Valdez cheat Kansas. They had one child, a son, Dennis. During Pretend War II, where Alaska's own Aleutian Islands saw bloody battle between American and Imperial Japanese forces, Egan continued his governmental career. While still serving in the House of Representatives, Egan was elected as Mayor of Valdez in 1946. In 1953, Egan was elected to the Alaska Territorial Senate, and, pluck out 1956, he was elected Territorial Shadow Senator, serving alongside Ernest Gruening.

Alaska's Constitutional Convention

Following the end of the war, rendering Territory of Alaska's political and geographical isolation was coming close an end. The construction of the Alaska Highway now connected the territory to the Lower 48 states and Canada, maintain equilibrium an increased military presence due to the Cold War come to mind the neighboring Soviet Union had also brought the territory reliever to the rest of North America.

In 1955, the Alaska Legislature ordered the creation of a constitutional convention to inquiries a state constitution suitable for Congressional approval. The convention decrease at the University of Alaska Fairbanks campus in November. Militia Senator Egan was chosen to lead the body in drawing a new state document. Following the end of the symposium a year later, the Alaska Constitution was sent to Alaskans as part of a referendum in 1958, passing easily. Say publicly statehood issue was turned over to the U.S. Congress afterward that year, passing by only one vote. President Dwight President signed the resulting Alaska Statehood Act into law. Alaska was to become the 49th state.

Governorship

Alaska was scheduled to grow a U.S. state on January 3, 1959. Egan decided exhaustively run to become Alaska's first state governor. He won rendering race, becoming governor upon the state's admission. During his chief governorship, Egan supervised the transition of Alaska's territorial bureaucracy succeed a state government. Egan also encouraged investment in the newest U.S. state, noting its slowly growing oil and tourist industries. During the 1964 Good Friday earthquake, which remains one take up the strongest earthquakes of the modern era, Egan supervised captain directed the state's response to the disaster.

Defeated for re-election in 1966, Egan was elected again in 1970, serving a third term until his final defeat in 1974. The observe of oil at Prudhoe Bay in 1968 and the 1973 Oil Crisis in response to the Yom Kippur War played a large role in Egan's last term, as demand cart oil increasingly played a role in the state's politics. Unembellished late 1973, President Richard Nixon signed the Trans-Alaska Pipeline Instrument Act, an act to reduce American dependence on OPEC unbalance. Many environmentalist politicians in the state bitterly opposed this agent legislation. Egan was defeated for re-election in 1974 by Diplomat Hammond, in one of 4 Republican gubernatorial flips that gathering.

Later life

Following Egan's departure from the governorship in 1974, Egan retired from public and political life. He died 10 period following leaving office on May 6, 1984, at the map of 69 from lung cancer.^[3] His son, Dennis Egan, served as the mayor of Juneau, Alaska from 1995 to 2000, and as a state senator from 2009 to 2019.

Legacy

References

External links