Robert C. Hendrickson

Robert Clymer Hendrickson (August 12, 1898 – December 7, 1964) was a United States Senator from New Jersey. Born in Woodbury, New Jersey, he attended public schools and during the First World War enlisted in the United States Army in 1918 and served overseas. He graduated from Temple University Law School in Philadelphia (1922) and was admitted to the New Jersey bar, commencing practice in Woodbury. He held the office of county supervisor from 1929 to 1934, and was city solicitor of Woodbury in 1931. He was a member of the New Jersey Senate from 1934 to 1940, serving as president of the senate in 1939; he was an unsuccessful Republican nominee for Governor in 1940. He served as State treasurer from 1942 to 1948 and a member of board of managers of the Council of State Governments, in 1940, and was its chairman in 1941. He was vice chairman of Commission on Delaware River Basin from 1936 to 1951.

During the Second World War he rejoined the Army in 1943, was commissioned a major, served with the American Military Government in the Mediterranean Theater of Operations and was subsequently promoted to lieutenant colonel in 1944, being separated from the service in 1946. He was called back into active duty for the Korean War in 1951. In 1948, he was elected as a Republican to the U.S. Senate, and served from January 3, 1949, to January 2, 1955; he was not a candidate for renomination in 1954. President Dwight Eisenhower appointed Hendrickson to the post of United States Ambassador to New Zealand, which he held from February 16, 1955 to November 20, 1956. He was a resident of Woodbury until his death in 1964; interment was in Eglington Cemetery, Clarksboro, New Jersey.

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