Lowell K. Bridwell

Lowell K. Bridwell (14 June 1924 – 21 November 1986) was an American journalist and official with the Federal Highway Administration.

Bridwell originally from Westerville, Ohio (his father worked for the Anti-Saloon League), after WWII, he briefly attended Ohio State Univ. in the late 1940s and early 1950s, married a medical Dr. (Margaret Bridwell) and was a Scripps-Howard reporter in Columbus, Ohio then later Cincinnati, Ohio. During his time as a reporter in the 1950s he wrote many stories about first local and then national interest, and drew the interest of J. Edgar Hoover, Dir. of the FBI as liberal writer and was under one of his "watch list" during the red scare in America. Ironically, his brother Charles Bridwell also worked for the FBI at the time in the Columbus field office and refused to spy on his brother for Hoover, thus ending his career in the FBI. Years later, Lowell became well known as the reporter who wrote an exposé debunking Walter Williams, who claimed to be the last surviving Civil War veteran. United Press International (September 3, 1959). Texan's Civil War Role in Doubt As Records Indicate Age Is 104. "New York Times"]

After covering Mass. Sen. John F. Kennedy's run for the Presidency in 1960 as a reporter, he joined the administration United States Department of Commerce in April 1962 as assistant to Under Secretary for Transportation Clarence Martin, Jr., (under President Kennedy) before being appointed Acting Deputy Federal Highway Administrator on January 20, 1964, under President Johnson a post he held until becoming Deputy Under Secretary of Commerce for Transportation (Operations) on July 2, 1964.

He held the position of Federal Highway Administrator from March 23, 1967 until the end of the Johnson Administration on January 20, 1969. During this time billions of dollars of highway funds were used to build America's highways from coast to coast.

From 1972 to 1981, Bridwell was the executive director of the Westside Highway Project. Barron, James (November 26, 1986). Lowell K. Bridwell dies at 62: Headed planning of Westway. "New York Times" Bridwell died in Columbia, Maryland.] Between 1981 and 1984, he was appointed Secretary of the Maryland Department of Transportation, and taught at the Univ. of Maryland during the 1980s.

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External links

* [http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/administrators/lbridwell.htm Lowell K. Bridwell bio] via Department of Transportation