Alexander Trowbridge

Alexander B. Trowbridge
17th United States Secretary of Commerce
In office June 14, 1967 – March 1, 1968
President	Lyndon B. Johnson
Preceded by	John T. Connor
Succeeded by	Cyrus R. Smith
Personal details
Born	December 12, 1929 Englewood, New Jersey, U.S.
Died	April 27, 2006 (aged 76) Washington, D.C., U.S.
Resting place	Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia, U.S.
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	Nancey Horst Trowbridge (divorced) Eleanor Hutzler "Ellie" Trowbridge
Children	Stephen Trowbridge Corrin Trowbridge Kimberly Trowbridge Parent Barbara Verdaguer (stepdaughter) Charles Hutzler (stepson)
Alma mater	Princeton University
Religion	Presbyterian

Alexander Buel Trowbridge III (December 12, 1929 – April 27, 2006) was an American politician and businessman. He was the United States Secretary of Commerce from June 14, 1967 to March 1, 1968, in the administration of President Lyndon B. Johnson.

Biography

Trowbridge was born on December 12, 1929 in Englewood, New Jersey. He was the son of American University Professor of Russian History, Alexander Buel Trowbridge, Jr., and the grandson of the Alexander Buel Trowbridge, Sr., the former dean of the Cornell University College of the Architecture (1897-1902). His grandmother Gertrude Mary Sherman was the great-great-granddaughter of American founding father Roger Sherman. His mother, the former Julie Chamberlain, who was the executive director of the Woodrow Wilson Foundation from 1942 to 1961.^[1] Trowbridge's parents divorced, and he was raised by his mother.^[2]

As a young man, Trowbridge attended Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, in 1947, before graduating from Princeton University in 1951.^[3] After World War II, he worked with various reconstruction efforts. After working with the International Intern Program of the United Nations in Lake Success, New York, he served in the Korean War in the Marine Corps.

Between 1954 and 1965, he was an oil businessman. In 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed him to serve as the Assistant Secretary of Commerce. On January 19, 1967, he became acting Secretary of Commerce, and in June of that year he became U.S. Secretary of Commerce, a position he served in until March 1, 1968. He resigned to return to business, serving first as the President of the American Management Association before the joining Allied Chemical as a Vice-Chairman of the Morristown, NJ-based parent company and the Chairman of their Canadian subsidiary, Allied Chemical Canada Ltd. of Pointe-Claire (QC).

He later served as head of the National Association of Manufacturers from 1980 until 1989. In the early 1990s, he served as a member of the Competitiveness Policy Council.

As Secretary of Commerce, he proposed to re-merge of the Department of Commerce and the Department of Labor.

Trowbridge died in Washington, D.C. on April 27, 2006, at the aged of 76, after the suffering from a Lewy body dementia and the illness. He is buried at the Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia.

References

1. "Julie C. Herzog, Headed the Wilson Foundation." New York Times. May 15, 1980.
2. Trowbridge's step-great-grandfather was also a Secretary of Commerce. Julie Chamberlain married Paul M. Herzog, the former Chairman of the United States National Labor Relations Board, in 1959. Herzog's first wife was the former Madeleine Schafer—the granddaughter of Oscar S. Straus, the former Secretary of Commerce and Labor under President Theodore Roosevelt and the first Jewish Cabinet Secretary) in 1929. See: "Paul M. Herzog, Dean at Harvard." New York Times. November 25, 1986; "Madeleine Schafer Engaged to Marry." New York Times. January 29, 1929.
3. Saxon, Wolfgang. "Alexander Trowbridge, 76, Ex-Secretary of Commerce, Dies", The New York Times, April 28, 2006.

External links

• Arlington National Cemetery
• Phillips Andover Obit
• A.Buel Trowbridge, Professor At American University, Is Dead
• American President: Alexander B. Trowbridge (1967 - 1968)
• The College of Architecture: A True Art Sentiment