THOMAS
H. ELIOT: LEGISLATOR AND EDUCATOR
1907-1991
ELIOT,
Thomas Hopkinson,a Representative from Massachusetts;
born in Cambridge, Mass., June 14, 1907; attended
Browne and Nichols School; was graduated from
Harvard University in 1928; student at Emmanuel
College, Cambridge University, in 1928 and 1929;
was graduated from the law school of Harvard University
in 1932; was admitted to the bar in 1933 and commenced
practice in Buffalo, N.Y.; served as assistant
solicitor in the United States Department of Labor
1933-1935; general counsel for the Social Security
Board 1935-1938; lecturer on government at Harvard
University in 1937 and 1938; regional director
of the Wage and Hour Division in the Department
of Labor in 1939 and 1940; unsuccessful candidate
for e lection
in 1938 to the Seventy-sixth Congress; elected
as a Democrat to the Seventy-seventh Congress
(January 3, 1941-January 3, 1943); unsuccessful
candidate for renomination in 1942 and for nomination
in 1944 to the Seventy-ninth Congress; director
of the British Division, Office of War Information,
London, England, and special assistant to the
United States Ambassador, 1943; chairman of the
appeals committee, National War Labor Board, 1943-1944;
served with the Office of Strategic Services in
1944; served as chief counsel, Division of Power,
Department of the Interior, from November 1944
to November 1945; engaged in the practice of law
in Boston, Mass., 1945-1950; professor of political
science, Washington University, St. Louis, Mo.,
1952, and of constitutional law 1958; dean of
Washington University College of Liberal Arts,
1961-1962, and chancellor, 1962-1971; vice chairman,
United States Commission on Intergovernmental
Relations, 1963-1967; president, Salzburg Seminar
in American Studies, 1971-1977; teacher, Buckingham,
Browne and Nichols School, 1977-1985; was a resident
of Cambridge, Mass., until his death there on
October 14, 1991.
The chief draftsman of the Social Security
Act, as well as the first General Counsel for the Social
Security Board of the United States was the son of Samuels
Atkins Eliot, the first president of the American
Unitarian Association. The Social Security Administration
Archives portray his life as follows:
In
1933, Thomas H. Eliot, together with many of his youthful
fellow graduates from Harvard Law School, went to Washington,
becoming Assistant Solicitor of the Department of Labor
under Frances Perkins. Later, she appointed him Counsel
for the Committee on Economic Security which drafted the
social security bill. After serving as General Counsel for
the Social Security Board, he returned to Massachusetts,
taught at Harvard, was elected to Congress from Massachusetts,
joined the faculty of Washington University in St. Louis
in 1952, and served as Chancellor of that institution during
the period 1962-71. The problems faced in the drafting of
legislation which could withstand constitutional challenges
in the U.S. Supreme Court are the core of Mr. Eliot's presentation.
He reports how the Court's earlier decisions on grants-in-aid
provided the basis for the old-age assistance program and
several other grant-in-aid programs in the 1935 Act; how
the decision upholding tax offsets was used as the basis
for the unemployment insurance legislation once the policy
decision of State responsibility and administration had
been made; and how events unrelated to social security may
have had an impact on the Court's upholding the constitutionality
of the old-age insurance program.
Former
Chancellor of Washington University
Abridged from the St. Louis
Post-Dispatch, October 16, 1991
On
the Hilltop campus is Thomas Hopkinson Eliot Hall which
houses the department of Political Science and Economics
Thomas
H. Eliot, as Washington University chancellor, led the school
to national academic prominence and helped it weather the
student protest era. Mr. Eliot headed Washington University
from 1962 until his retirement in 1971. Earlier, he represented
his home state of Massachusetts in Congress and was a federal
labor official, playing a key role in the drafting of the
Social Security Act and the lobbying for its passage. After
leaving Washington University, he became president of the
Salzburg Seminar in American Studies, holding that post
until 1976. In that position, he divided his time between
Salzburg, Austria, and the seminar's U.S. office in Cambridge.
Mr. Eliot joined Washington University in 1952 as chairman
of its political science department. In 1958, he became
the Charles Nagel Professor of Constitutional Law and Political
Science. In 1961, he became dean of the College of Liberal
Arts and vice chancellor, dean of faculties. As the school's
12th chancellor, he was credited with completing the school's
transformation from an institution of primarily local renown
into one with a national reputation. He achieved that in
part by bringing well-known scholars in various fields to
join the university's faculty and by attracting substantial
financial support from the Ford Foundation and other private
groups. During Mr. Eliot's tenure, the school's full-time
faculty grew from 600 people to more than 1,100. Fourteen
major buildings were completed, and construction was begun
on three more.
The
University Chancellor's residence, Herbison House
The
university received more than $100 million in grants and
gifts from private sources and maintained an unprecedented
level of government support of research and teaching. In
the late 1960s and early 1970s, Washington University -
like many campuses - was affected by studentprotest against
the Vietnam War and other issues. Robert H. Salisbury, chairman
of the school's political science department, recalled Tuesday
that Mr. Eliot had been "firm in resisting some of
the more outrageous tendencies of demands for change"
at the school but "accommodating" in considering
well-reasoned requests. Salisbury added that Mr. Eliot—in
an effort to keep confrontation to a minimum—kept local
police off campus during protests except when absolutely
necessary. In a 1970 lecture, Mr. Eliot said colleges needed
to retain their role as "citadels of freedom of inquiry
and expression" and to resist both "anarchistic
violence" on the left and "extremist reaction"
on the right. Mr. Eliot was born in Cambridge. He was the
grandson of Charles W. Eliot, a president of Harvard University.
Mr. Eliot's family includes also William Greenleaf Eliot,
a founder of Washington University, and the poet T.S. Eliot.
Over the years, Mr. Eliot wrote articles for many professional
journals and general-interest magazines and was author of
a leading college textbook, "Governing America: The
Politics of a Free People." In addition, Mr. Eliot
served as a trustee of the St. Louis Council on World Affairs
and New England chairman of the United Negro College Fund.
Upon returning to Cambridge during his retirement years
Thomas Eliot taught at the coeducational day school for students
in Pre-K through grade 12 and also wrote its history
