Charles P. Taft
Files
Date
May 28, 1951
Keywords
Cedarville, commencement, Taft
Recommended Citation
"Charles P. Taft" (1951). Commencement Speakers. 14.
https://digitalcommons.cedarville.edu/commencement_speakers/14
Skip to main content
COinS
Biographical Sketch
Charles P. Taft, the son of President William Howard Taft and brother of Senator Robert Alphonso Taft, was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, and attended Yale University. After completing his World War I service in the U.S. Army, Taft opened a successful law practice and, like his father before him, became an influential, active Republican. Charles Taft was more liberal than his brother, with whom he practiced law, and his father, who was chief justice of the Supreme Court. Charles supported reform movements and fought against the political machine in Cincinnati. During World War II, he served in the State Department Office of Wartime Economic Affairs and in 1945 was an adviser to the U.S. delegation to the San Francisco Conference that led to the creation of the United Nations. Also that same year, Taft began his twenty-two year service on the city council where he worked closely with the city's Charter Committee Party's crusade for "better local government." In 1952 he won the Republican nomination for governor only to lose to Democrat Frank Lausche, who occupied the governorship until 1957. In 1955 Taft was elected mayor of Cincinnati and during his tenure pursued an agenda that included slum clearance, public assistance for needy citizens, and improved labor relations. After serving one term, he sought the governorship a second time only to be defeated in the Republican primary. He returned to his law practice and remained involved in civic activities, especially working to encourage the Republican party to end any support of racial discrimination. He died in Cincinnati in 1983.
(Source: American National Biography Online)