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Higher Office(s) Served: Senator

Military Service: Navy

War(s) Served:  World War I

RAYMOND EARLY BALDWIN, U.S. Senator, governor, and chief justice, was born in Rye, New York, on August 31, 1893. He graduated from Wesleyan University in 1916 and earned a law degree from Yale in 1921. Before finishing his law degree, Baldwin served during World War I. He enlisted as a seaman in the U.S. Navy, served on a destroyer, and was commissioned as an ensign at Annapolis. Baldwin entered politics in 1927, as public prosecutor of Stratford, an office he held for three years. He also served on the bench of the Stratford Town Court from 1931 to 1933, and was a member of the Connecticut House of Representatives from 1930 and 1935. Baldwin won the 1938 Republican gubernatorial nomination, and was elected governor of Connecticut. He ran unsuccessfully for reelection in 1940, but won reelection in 1942, and 1944. During his tenure, he eliminated the state deficit without raising taxes; he initiated a job-training program, created an inter-racial commission, and reformed the minor court system. Also instituted were a Connecticut Veterans Advisory and Reemployment Commission and a labor management council. Baldwin resigned from the governor's office on December 27, 1946, after winning a seat in the U.S. Senate. He served as a senator until 1949, and then was appointed to the bench of the Connecticut Supreme Court. Ten years later, he was named chief justice, a position he held until his retirement in 1963. He later served as chairman of the 1965 Connecticut Constitutional Convention, and was a member of the Connecticut State Library Committee. Governor Raymond E. Baldwin died on October 4, 1986.

Sources:

Sobel, Robert, and John Raimo, eds. Biographical Directory of the Governors of the United States, 1789-1978, Vol. 1, Westport, Conn.; Meckler Books, 1978. 4 vols.

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