- Claude R. Wickard
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Claude Raymond Wickard (February 28, 1893 – April 29, 1967) served as Secretary of Agriculture under President Franklin D. Roosevelt from 1940 to 1945. Wickard was born on his family farm in Carroll County, Indiana, near Camden. He graduated from Purdue University in 1915, with a bachelor's degree in agriculture, and was chosen as "Master Farmer of Indiana" in 1927 for his improvements in stock feeding and farming. Elected to the Indiana Senate in 1932, he was appointed as Undersecretary of Agriculture. When Henry A. Wallace resigned as Secretary of Agriculture in 1940 to run for Vice-President of the United States, Wickard succeeded to the post. During World War II, Wickard headed the War Foods Administration, promoting increased farm production as a matter of patriotism. His slogan was "Food Will Win the War and Write the Peace".
Wickard resigned in 1945 to become chief of the Rural Electrification Administration, until 1953. He ran, unsuccessfully, as the Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate in 1956, losing to incumbent Homer E. Capehart. Wickard was killed in an automobile accident on April 29, 1967, at the age of 74. Reportedly, he ran a stop sign at the intersection of State Highway 18 and U.S. Highway 421 near Delphi, Indiana, and his vehicle was hit by a crushed-stone truck. He was buried at the Maple Lawn Cemetery in Flora, Indiana.[1]
See also
References
Political offices Preceded by
Henry Agard WallaceUnited States Secretary of Agriculture
Served under: Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman
1940–1945Succeeded by
Clinton Presba AndersonUnited States Secretaries of Agriculture 
Cabinet of President Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933–1945) Vice President 
Secretary of State Cordell Hull (1933–1944) • Edward Stettinius, Jr. (1944–1945)Secretary of War Secretary of the Treasury William Hartman Woodin (1933–1934) • Henry Morgenthau, Jr. (1934–1945)Attorney General Homer Stille Cummings (1933–1939) • Frank Murphy (1939–1940) • Robert H. Jackson (1940–1941) • Francis Biddle (1941–1945)Postmaster General James Farley (1933–1940) • Frank Comerford Walker (1940–1945)Secretary of the Navy Claude A. Swanson (1933–1939) • Charles Edison (1940) • Frank Knox (1940–1944) • James Forrestal (1944–1945)Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes (1933–1945)Secretary of the Agriculture Henry A. Wallace (1933–1940) • Claude R. Wickard (1940–1945)Secretary of Commerce Daniel C. Roper (1933–1938) • Harry Hopkins (1939–1940) • Jesse H. Jones (1940–1945) • Henry A. Wallace (1945)Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins (1933–1945)Cabinet of President Harry S. Truman (1945–1953) Vice President None (1945–1949) • Alben W. Barkley (1949–1953)
Secretary of State Edward Stettinius, Jr. (1945) • James F. Byrnes (1945–1947) • George Marshall (1947–1949) • Dean Acheson (1949–1953)Secretary of War Secretary of Defense James Forrestal (1947–1949) • Louis Arthur Johnson (1949–1950) • George Marshall (1950–1951) • Robert A. Lovett (1951–1953)Secretary of the Treasury Attorney General Francis Biddle (1945) • Tom C. Clark (1945–1949) • J. Howard McGrath (1949–1952) • James P. McGranery (1952–1953)Postmaster General Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal (1945–1947)Secretary of the Interior Secretary of the Agriculture Claude R. Wickard (1945) • Clinton P. Anderson (1945–1948) • Charles F. Brannan (1948–1953)Secretary of Commerce Henry A. Wallace (1945–1946) • William Averell Harriman (1946–1948) • Charles W. Sawyer (1948–1953)Secretary of Labor Categories:- Franklin D. Roosevelt administration cabinet members
- Truman Administration cabinet members
- 1893 births
- 1967 deaths
- Purdue University alumni
- Road accident deaths in Indiana
- People from Carroll County, Indiana
- Indiana State Senators
- Indiana politician stubs
- Agriculture stubs
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