Chester
Bowles was born in Springfield, Massachusetts on 5th April, 1901.
After graduating from Yale University he
became a a copy writer at George Batton Company, a
New York City advertising agency.
In 1929 Bowles joined forces
with his friend, William Benton, to establish
an advertising agency, Benton & Bowles. The business was a great
success and their clients included Proctor & Gamble and Maxwell
House. By 1935 the Benton and Bowles agency was the sixth-largest
advertising firm in the world.
After Pearl
Harbor Bowles attempted to join the U.S.
Navy. He failed his medical and was offered the post as director
of the Office of Price Administration in Connecticut. In 1943 President
Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed him
as general manager of the Federal Price Administration.
In 1946 President Harry
Truman appointed him as director of the Office of Economic Stability.
He also published the book, Tomorrow Without
Fear (1946). Bowles also worked for the UN Appeal for Children
in Europe before being elected as Governor of Connecticut in 1949.
At the end of his term Truman appointed him as ambassador to India.
A member of the Democratic
Party, Bowles was elected to the Eighty-sixth Congress (January,
1959-January, 1961). President John F.
Kennedy appointed Bowles as his Undersecretary of State. He was
highly critical of Kennedy's decision to go ahead with the Bay
of Pigs operation. Bowles once again became ambassador to India
(1963-1969).
Bowles wrote several books
including Africa's Challenge to America
(1956), Ideas, People and Peace
(1958), The Makings of a Just Society
(1963), A View From New Delhi: Selected Speeches
and Writings (1969), Promises
to Keep: My Years in Public Life (1971), Ideas,
People and Peace (1974) and Conscience
of a Liberal: Selected Writings and Speeches (1975).
Chester Bowles died in
Essex, Connecticut, on 25th May, 1986.
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