Office Dates: Jan 14, 1943 - Jan 11, 1945
Born: Jul 21, 1896
Passed: Sep 04, 1971
Birth State: Iowa
Party: Republican
Family: Married Verna Eilene Bensch; two children
School(s): Iowa State College, University of Iowa
National Office(s) Served: Senator
Military Service: Army
BOURKE BLAKEMORE HICKENLOOPER, Iowa's twenty-ninth governor, was born in Blockton, Iowa on July 21, 1896. He graduated from Iowa State College in 1919, earned his law degree from the University of Iowa in 1922, was admitted to the bar in 1922, and then established his legal practice in Cedar Rapids. During World War I, he served overseas as a second lieutenant of the field artillery. Hickenlooper entered politics in 1934, serving as a member of the Iowa House of Representatives, a position he held until 1937. He also served as the lieutenant governor of Iowa from 1939 to 1942. Hickenlooper won the 1942 Republican gubernatorial nomination and was sworn into the governor's office on January 14, 1943. During his tenure, World War II issues were addressed. The federal government's soldier-vote ballot was rejected; the war effort was financed with state funding; and the participation in a world peace international organization was endorsed. After his term ended on January 11, 1945, Hickenlooper was elected and served in the U.S. Senate, an office he held from 1945 to 1969. Governor Bourke B. Hickenlooper died on September 4, 1971, and was buried at the Cedar Memorial Cemetery in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
Sources:
Annals of Iowa, 47 (1984): 362-76.
Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress
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.