Leverett Saltonstall

Leverett Atholville Saltonstall (September 1, 1892 – June 17, 1979) was an American lawyer and politician from Massachusetts. He served three two-year terms as the 55th governor of Massachusetts, and for more than twenty years as a United States senator (1945–1967). Saltonstall was internationalist in foreign policy and moderate on domestic policy, serving as a well-liked mediating force in the Republican Party. He was the only member of the Republican Senate leadership to vote for the censure of Joseph McCarthy.

Early years A portrait of Saltonstall's mother Eleanor by John Singer Sargent, titled Miss Eleanor Brooks (Mrs. Richard Middlecott Saltonstall).

Leverett Saltonstall was born on September 1, 1892 in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts to Richard Middlecott Saltonstall, an attorney, and Eleanor Brooks Saltonstall, an heiress to the Peter Chardon Brooks fortune. Saltenstall's parents had a circle of friends which included future President Theodore Roosevelt.

The Saltonstall family had deep colonial roots, as did the Brooks family of his mother. Saltonstall was able to trace his ancestral roots to the Mayflower; his grandfather and great-grandfather were both also named Leverett Saltonstall.

Saltonstall was educated at the private Noble and Greenough School in Dedham and the Evans School for Boys in Mesa, Arizona, an upper-crust ranch school where his classmates included Nicholas Roosevelt.

He attended Harvard College, graduating in 1914. He was active in varsity sports at Harvard, notably captaining the first American crew to win the Grand Challenge Cup at the Henley Royal Regatta in 1914. He also played football and hockey, scoring a dramatic overtime goal in a 1914 win over Hobey Baker's Princeton team. He coached Harvard's freshman football team in 1915.

He graduated from Harvard Law School in 1917. and then entered the law firm of his uncle. Saltonstall voted in favor of the Civil Rights Acts of 1957, 1960, and 1964, as well as the 24th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Saltonstall was one of thirteen Republican senators to vote in favor of the creation of Medicare. As a senator, Saltonstall was described by The Washington Post as neither liberal or conservative, but as being on the side of common sense.

Personal life In 1916, Saltonstall married Alice Wesselhoeft (1893–1981) of Jaffrey, New Hampshire. Together they had six children, including:

Emily (1920–2006), at one time the daughter-in-law of Richard Byrd and a former WAVE; Peter Brooks Saltonstall (1921–1944), killed in action at the Battle of Guam in 1944; William L. Saltonstall (1927–2009), a member of the Massachusetts Senate; and Susan (1930–1994), a horse breeder.

Death and legacy Saltonstall opted not to run for reelection in 1966, in part to provide an opportunity for his seat to Edward Brooke, a rising star in Massachusetts Republican circles. He retired to his farm in Dover, where he spent his remaining years as a gentleman farmer.

Leverett Saltonstall died of congestive heart failure in 1979 aged 86, and is buried in Harmony Grove Cemetery in Salem, Massachusetts. The Saltonstall Building in downtown Boston is named for him.