Stuart Symington
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William Stuart Symington (June 26, 1901–December 14, 1988) was a U.S. businessman and political figure. He served as the first Secretary of the Air Force between 1947 and 1950. A Democrat, Symington was elected to the United States Senate from Missouri in 1952 and served in the Senate from 1953 until 1976.
Symington ran for President in 1960 and won the backing of former President Harry S. Truman, but eventually lost the nomination to Senator John F. Kennedy. He was considered for Vice President, but was dropped in favor of Texas Senator Lyndon B. Johnson. He advised President Kennedy as a member of ExComm during the October 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.
During Symington's tenure in the Senate, he was known as an advocate for a strong national defense. He was also a strong supporter of the United States Air Force Academy and, in fact, helped establish it. Symington was also committed to constituent services, answering letters from Missouri citizens both important, trivial, and sometimes even zany. As an example, Symington once formally requested a report from military sources regarding the possible existence of subterranean superhumans which one of his constituents had become concerned about after reading a fiction book and mistaking it for non-fiction. This and Symington's other Senatorial correspondence and papers were donated to the Western Historical Manuscripts Collection-Columbia (on the University of Missouri campus) in 2002, and are now available to the general public.
His son James W. Symington served in the U.S. House from Missouri's Second Congressional District from 1969 to 1977. His cousin Fife Symington was Governor of Arizona from 1991 to 1997.
Symington graduated from Yale University in 1923.
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