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- Born: July 4, 1872 in Plymouth, VT
Died: January 5, 1933 in Northampton, MA; buried Plymouth, VT
Spouse: Grace Anna Goodhue (1879-1957), married October 4, 1905
Children: 2 sons
Religion: Congregationalist
Education: Amherst Coll., 1891-95
Career: Lawyer, 1897-?; Northampton, Mass. City Council, 1899-1900; Northampton City Solicitor, 1900-02; Mem., Mass. General Court, 1907-08; Mayor of Northampton, Mass., 1910-11; Mass. State Senator, 1912-15; Mass. Senate President, 1914-15;
Lieutenant Governor of Mass., 1916-18; Governor of Massachusetts, 1919-20; U.S. Vice President, 1921-23; U.S. President, 1923-29
Party Affiliation: Republican
Two Terms Served: 1923-25 (pt.), 1925-29
Vice President: Charles G. Dawes, IL, served 1925-29
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From FindaGrave:
30th United States President, United States Vice President, Massachusetts Governor.
He is often remembered as "Silent Cal," for his dry Yankee wit and frugality of expression. At a dinner party, a young woman once remarked to him that she could get him to speak at least three words, to which he replied with a grin, "You lose".
Born in Plymouth, Vermont, he was the son of a village storekeeper. He graduated from Amherst College with honors, and entered the practice of law in Northampton, Massachusetts. There he met and married the former Grace Ann Goodhue, a teacher at a school for deaf children. Known for her friendliness, grace and zest for life, she was the opposite of her husband, yet complemented him with her frugality and simplicity.
Beginning in politics as a councilman in Northampton, he went on to become the Governor of Massachusetts, as a Republican, making his reputation for his conservative policies. In the election of 1920, he accepted the role of Vice President, with running mate Warren G. Harding. On August 3, 1923, he became President of the United States, when President Harding suddenly died of a heart attack while visiting San Francisco.
Refusing to use Federal economic policy to check the growing economy, he was a believer that the best Federal policy was to leave the country alone, that the Federal Government was too big. This belief was also carried to his foreign policy, and his first message to Congress, in December 1923, called for isolation from foreign politics, tax cuts, economy in the Federal government, and a cut back in aid to farmers.
The political analyst, Walter Lippmann, remarked that the political genius of Coolidge was his talent for effectively doing nothing. Despite his non-involvement in the running of the country, he was extremely popular, and was reelected as President in 1924. At his inaugural, he pledged to maintain the status quo, pointing out that the country was prosperous when left alone.
In 1927, while on vacation in the Black Hills of South Dakota, he issued a one-sentence statement: "I do not choose to run for President in 1928." He was succeeded in his office by the Republican Party candidate, Herbert Hoover.
In 1933, just before his death of heart failure and in the middle of the Great Depression, he confided to an old friend, "I feel I no longer fit in with these times."
Bio by: Kit and Morgan Benson
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1872 - 1933 (60 years)
