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Military Service: Navy

War(s) Served:  World War II

EDWARD F. ARN, the thirty-second governor of Kansas, was born in Kansas City, Kansas on May 19, 1906. He was educated at Kansas City Junior College, the University of Kansas, and at the Kansas City School of Law. After working on the Kansas Highway Commission as an investigator, Arn established a legal career in Wichita. In 1943, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy, serving as a lieutenant aboard an aircraft carrier that fought in Iwo Jima. Arn entered politics when he was elected as chairman of the Wyandotte County Republicans, a position he held when he was a college freshman. He served four years as chairman of a congressional district of Young Republicans, and was a precinct committeeman for six years. He also served as attorney general of Kansas from 1947 to 1949, and was justice of the Kansas State Supreme Court from 1949 to 1950. Arn won the 1950 Republican gubernatorial nomination and was sworn into the governorship on January 8, 1951. He was reelected to a second term in 1952. During his tenure, the Kansas turnpike authority was established, as well as the citizen's commission, and the state grain commission. Also, workmen's compensation benefits were improved, the department of social welfare was restructured, a state department of administration was organized, the Kansas veteran's commission was formed, and the destructive floods of 1951 were dealt with. Arn left office on January 10, 1955 and returned to his Wichita legal practice. He later ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate in 1962, and served as chairman of the Judicial Study Advisory Committee in 1973. Governor Edward F. Arn died on January 22, 1998, and was buried at the Mission Chapel Mausoleum in Wichita, Kansas.

Sources:

Sobel, Robert, and John Raimo, eds. Biographical Directory of the Governors of the United States, 1789-1978, Vol. 2, Westport, Conn.; Meckler Books, 1978. 4 vols.

Rulers.org

The Political Graveyard

Kansas State Historical Society