Willard Wirtz, Last Survivor of Kennedy Cabinet, Dies

[Omaha Steve]

Source: Bloomberg

By Laurence Arnold and Molly Peterson

April 25 (Bloomberg) -- Willard Wirtz, the former U.S. labor secretary who was the last surviving member of President John F. Kennedy’s Cabinet, has died. He was 98.

Wirtz died of natural causes yesterday at his home in Washington, his son Philip said today in an interview. Wirtz’s death was first reported by the Associated Press.

A lawyer, Wirtz led the U.S. Labor Department from September 1962 to 1969, spanning the last year of Kennedy’s presidency and the administration of Lyndon B. Johnson, who became president when Kennedy was assassinated in November 1963.

As secretary, Wirtz advocated economic policies to maximize employment, even at the risk of higher inflation. He told reporters at the end of the Johnson presidency that he was most satisfied that the unemployment rate dropped during his tenure to 3.3 percent from 5.8 percent.


Read more: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-04-25/willard-wirtz-last-survivor-of-kennedy-cabinet-dies-update1-.html

[Skittles]

1. they don't make 'em like that anymore

[Democat]

2. The unemployment rate was 3.3 percent at the end of his tenure

Rest in Peace.

[dogfacedboy]

3. I wonder if he was part of the big Wirtz family in Chicago.

The article did not say.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

4. It seems likely.

I always read the obituaries in the Washington Post. I'm on dialup at home, or I would have posted this yesterday. He came from DeKalb, Illinois, so it seems likely.

Willard Wirtz, labor secretary for JFK and LBJ, dies at 98

By Martin Weil
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, April 25, 2010

Willard Wirtz, a lawyer and longtime public servant who was secretary of labor under presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, died April 24 at an assisted living facility in Washington. He had been in failing health, but the cause of death was not immediately known.
....

William Willard Wirtz was born March 14, 1912, in DeKalb Ill., attended Beloit College in Wisconsin and graduated in 1937 from Harvard Law School. He was on the faculties of the University of Iowa and Northwestern University law schools before serving during World War II with the War Labor Board. In 1946, he chaired the National Wage Stabilization Board. He then taught at Northwestern again and, a skillful writer, prepared speeches for Adlai Stevenson during the Democrat's presidential campaigns.
....

Mr. Wirtz abandoned a flourishing Chicago law practice to join the Kennedy administration in 1961. Although federal salaries "were terrible," he told NPR, he "never thought of it as a sacrifice."