Chester Bliss BOWLES, Congress, CT (1901-1986)

BOWLES, Chester Bliss, a Representative from Connecticut; born in Springfield, Hampden County, Mass., April 5, 1901; graduated from Choate School, Wallingford, Conn., in 1919 and from Yale University in 1924; businessman in Springfield, Mass., and New York City, 1924-1929; cofounder Benton & Bowles, Inc., an advertising agency, New York City, in 1929 and was chairman of the board 1936-1941; Connecticut State rationing administrator in 1942, State director in 1942 and 1943, and general manager July-October 1943; administrator, Office of Price Administration, 1943-1946; member, War Production Board and Petroleum Board for War 1943-1946; chairman, Economic Stabilization Board, 1946; delegate to the United Nations Economic, Scientific and Cultural Organization Conference at Paris in 1946; Governor of Connecticut 1949-1951; Ambassador to India and Nepal 1951-1953; author and lecturer; trustee of Rockefeller Foundation, Woodrow Wilson Foundation, and Franklin D. Roosevelt Foundation; delegate to the Democratic National Conventions in 1940, 1948, and 1956; chairman of the platform committee, Democratic National Convention, in 1960; elected as a Democrat to the Eighty-sixth Congress (January 3, 1959-January 3, 1961); was not a candidate for renomination in 1960; Under Secretary of State, 1961; President’s special representative and advisor, 1961-1963; returned to India as United States Ambassador and served from 1963 to 1969; was a resident of Essex, Conn., until his death there on May 25, 1986.

Bibliography

Bowles, Chester. Promises to Keep: My Years in Public Life, 1941-1969. New York: Harper & Row, 1971.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present