John deKoven Alsop

John deKoven Alsop (July 4, 1915 – April 6, 2000) was an American politician, insurance executive, and soldier. A Republican, Alsop served in the Connecticut House of Representatives and unsuccessfully ran for governor of Connecticut in 1958 and 1962. He was the youngest of four children born to Joseph Wright Alsop IV (1876–1953) and Corinne Douglas Robinson (1886–1971), both of whom also served in the Connecticut General Assembly. His brothers were journalists Joseph Alsop and Stewart Alsop.

Alsop's family included politicians such as Continental Congressman John Alsop, Richard Alsop, John Alsop King, and James Monroe. His paternal grandfather, Dr. Joseph Wright Alsop III, was the Democratic nominee for Lt. Governor of Connecticut in 1891. Through his mother, he was descended from the Oyster Bay branch of the Roosevelt family, his maternal grandmother was Corinne Roosevelt Robinson, his grand-uncle was President Theodore Roosevelt, and Eleanor Roosevelt was his first cousin once removed. At the end of the 1949 legislative session, he also helped push through three desegregation bills submitted by the Connecticut NAACP that outlawed racial discrimination in public accommodations, public-housing projects, and the National Guard. serving as a state vice chairman for the campaign. During the campaign, he was "credited with creating the amiable 1952 epithet 'egghead' in the modern political vocabulary." but lost in the primary to state comptroller Fred R. Zeller by a count of 276 votes to 349 votes, who himself overwhelmingly lost to Gov. Abraham Ribicoff in the general election. He attempted again in 1962, this time winning the nomination over Edwin H. May Jr. on the eighth ballot at the party convention after a deadlock of more than ten hours. Alsop ultimately lost the election to the incumbent Governor and former Lieutenant Governor, John N. Dempsey, who served from January 1961 to January 1971, by 482,671 votes to 549,030 votes for Dempsey. While he did not seek the nomination again or hold public office, he continued to be involved in the party and represented Connecticut on the Republican National Committee from 1968 until 1984. Alsop was married to Augusta McLane "Gussie" Robinson (1924–2015) at Trinity Episcopal Church in Hartford, Connecticut. She was the daughter of Lucius F. Robinson and Augusta (née McLane) Robinson. Gussie attended Miss Porter's School in Farmington, Connecticut and served as a Red Cross nurses' aide during World War II. In 1986, the family moved to Old Lyme, Connecticut, from their farm on Talcott Notch in Avon, where he was born.

John deKoven Alsop, who married Janice Stuver and served as the Assistant Attorney for the state of Maine. Mary Oliver Alsop, who married Peter Farnum Culver in 1978. Augusta McLane Alsop, who married Michael David Hoy, a woodworker. Samuel Alsop, who died as an infant.

Alsop died on April 6, 2000, at a health care center in Old Saybrook, Connecticut. His funeral was held at St. Ann Church in Old Lyme, Connecticut.