Bennet, Douglas Joseph

Douglas Joseph Bennet was born in Wilmington, Delaware on August 22, 1911. After graduating from Wesleyan University in 1933 he went to work in advertising and sales promotion. He moved to Hartford, Connecticut in April, 1942 to set up the gasoline rationing program for Connecticut. In the fall of 1943 he joined Chester Bowles at the Office of Price Administration in Washington as chief of the Office of Program Planning, Department of Information. He returned to Lyme, Connecticut and remained a lifelong political adviser and personal friend of Bowles and his family.

Douglas Joseph Bennet was born in Wilmington, Delaware on August 22, 1911. After receiving a B.A. degree from Wesleyan University in 1933 he became the assistant advertising manager for the R.T. French Co. of Rochester, New York. From 1937 to 1942 he served as the assistant to the vice president of the Northam Warren Corporation of New York and Stamford, Connecticut and sales promotion manager of Peggy Sage, Inc. of New York. In April, 1942 Bennet moved to Hartford, Connecticut to set up the gasoline rationing program for the state. In the fall of 1943 he joined Chester Bowles at the Office of Price Administration in Washington, D.C. as chief, Office of Program Planning, Department of Information. Bennet was placed in charge of OPA's educational programs and oversaw the planning for press, radio, and group activities to meet basic public information needs.

Bennet returned to Lyme, Connecticut in July, 1946. Until Bowles's death in 1986 Bennet remained a close personal friend and consultant. Throughout the years he was a Bowles political campaign adviser. Bennet served as a member of Bowles's gubernatorial staff in 1948.