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Military Service: Army

War(s) Served:  World War I

DWIGHT H. GREEN, Illinois' thirty-second governor, was born in Ligonier, Indiana, on January 9, 1897. From 1915 to 1917, Green attended Wabash College, however, his education was interrupted with the outbreak of World War I. He joined the U.S. Army Air Service, serving as a second lieutenant, army pilot, and a flying instructor. After his military service, he returned to his educational pursuits. He studied at Stanford in 1919, and earned a law degree from the University of Chicago in 1922. Green entered public service after establishing a successful legal career in Chicago. He secured an appointment in 1926, as a special attorney with the Bureau of Internal Revenue. In 1927, he served as a special assistant to the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, where he also was one of the prosecutors in the income tax evasion trial of Al Capone. He served as Illinois U.S. Attorney from 1932 to 1935, and was an unsuccessful 1939 Chicago mayoral candidate. Green won the 1940 Republican gubernatorial nomination and was sworn into the governor's office on January 13, 1941. He was reelected to a second term in 1944. During his tenure, the Chicago transit system was obtained, the publicly owned port authority was sanctioned, and veteran programs that focused on rehabilitation, reemployment, and retraining were all advanced. Also, an interracial commission was authorized to look into racism complaints in the employment and housing sectors, and legislation was instituted that made the teaching of American history and the ideology of republican government a mandatory requirement in public schools. After running unsuccessfully for a third term, Green left office on January 10, 1949, retiring from politics. Governor Dwight H. Green died on February 20, 1958, and was buried at the Rosehill Cemetery in Chicago, Illinois.

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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