New York (State). Governor (1955-1958 : Harriman)

Variant names

Dates:

Active 1919

Active 1994

Biographical notes:

William Averell Harriman was born in New York City on November 15, 1891. After graduating from Yale in 1913, he pursued a number of venture capital investments and served as director of both the Union Pacific and Illinois Central railroads. He also established the banking firm of W. A. Harriman and Company, which later merged with Brown Brothers and Company to create the renowned firm of Brown Brothers Harriman and Company. Concurrently with his business career, Harriman also served on a number of governmental commissions and went on to hold both economic advisory and diplomatic positions in the Roosevelt and Truman administrations. He campaigned unsuccessfully for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination in 1952, losing out to the more moderate Adlai Stevenson. The same fate would befall Harriman in the 1956 presidential campaign.

Following Governor Thomas E. Dewey's decision not to seek reelection in 1954, Harriman defeated United States Senator Irving M. Ives by a narrow margin, reclaiming the governorship for the Democratic Party. Harriman served just one term as governor, losing in his bid for reelection to Republican Nelson Rockefeller. Following his departure from the governorship, Harriman returned to his career in foreign affairs, holding the position of Ambassador at Large and additional posts in the U.S. State Department during the Kennedy and Johnson administrations. Harriman served as the chief American negotiator during the Paris peace talks aimed at ending the war in Vietnam. Averell Harriman died on July 26, 1986 in Yorktown Heights, New York at the age of ninety-four.

As governor, Harriman introduced new programs in the field of mental health, created an office of consumer counsel, prepared a comprehensive program for the aged, and began programs at the state level that would be emulated at the national level in what came to be known as the "War on Poverty." Harriman presided over increased activity by the State Commission against Discrimination and bi-partisan agreement on pioneering middle-income housing legislation. Lastly, Harriman successfully pressured the State Legislature to dramatically increase state aid to education.

For further information on the life and politcal career of Averell Harriman, see Averell Harriman: An Inventory of His Gubernatorial Papers in the Syracuse University Library, Manuscript Inventory Series Inventory Number 10, comp. James K. Owens, March 1967.

From the guide to the Central subject and correspondence files, 1955-1958, (New York State Archives)