Benjamin A. Smith II

Infobox_Senator
name = Benjamin Atwood Smith II


jr/sr = United States Senator
state = Massachusetts
term = December 27, 1960 – November 6, 1962
preceded = John F. Kennedy
succeeded = Ted Kennedy
date of birth = birth date|1916|3|16|mf=y
place of birth= Gloucester, Massachusetts
date of death = death date and age|1991|9|6|1916|3|16|mf=y
place of death=
spouse =
profession =
religion =
party = Democrat
|

Benjamin Atwood Smith II (March 16, 1916 – September 6, 1991) was briefly a United States Senator from the U.S. State of Massachusetts.

Smith was born in Gloucester, Massachusetts and he graduated from Harvard University where he was a roommate of John F. Kennedy. He served in the United States Navy in the Pacific during World War II. He served as Mayor of Gloucester from 1954 to 1955.

John F. Kennedy resigned from the Senate on December 22, 1960 after being elected President of the United States. Kennedy, who had been re-elected to a second Senate term of six years in 1958, advised Gov. Foster Furcolo of Massachusetts to appoint Smith to fill the vacated seat "in the interest of promoting party unity." Critics said Smith was intended all along to simply be a "seat-warmer" until the President-elect's brother, Ted Kennedy, turned 30 (the minimum age provided by the U.S. Constitution for eligibility to serve in the Senate). Smith served as Senator until a special election was held in 1962, when he was indeed succeeded by Ted Kennedy, who served the remainder of the term. Kennedy has been reelected ever since.

External links

*CongBio|S000517 Retrieved on 2008-01-23
*findagrave|9307774 Retrieved on 2008-01-23