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Senate Years of Service: 1941-1952 Party: Republican
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BREWSTER, Ralph Owen, a Representative and a Senator from Maine; born in Dexter, Penobscot County,
Maine, February 22, 1888; attended the public schools; graduated from Bowdoin College, Brunswick,
Maine, in 1909, and from the law department of Harvard University 1913; high school principal 1910;
admitted to the bar in 1913 and commenced practice in Portland, Maine; member of the Portland
school committee 1915-1923; member, State house of representatives 1917-1918, but resigned to
enter military service; served successively as private, second lieutenant, captain, and regimental
adjutant, Third Infantry, Maine National Guard; member, State house of representatives 1921-1923;
member of the State senate 1923-1925; Governor of Maine 1925-1929; unsuccessful candidate for
election to the Seventy-third Congress in 1932; elected as a Republican to the Seventy-fourth,
Seventy-fifth, and Seventy-sixth Congresses (January 3, 1935-January 3, 1941); did not seek
renomination in 1940, having become a candidate for United States Senator; elected as a Republican
to the United States Senate in 1940; reelected in 1946 and served from January 3, 1941, until his
resignation December 31, 1952; unsuccessful candidate for renomination in 1952; chairman, Special
Committee on National Defense (Eightieth Congress); died in Boston, Mass., December 25, 1961;
interment in Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Dexter, Maine.
BibliographyDictionary of American Biography;
Maher, Sister M. Patrick Ellen. The Role of the Chairman of a Congressional Investigating
Committee: A Case Study of the Special Committee of the Senate to Investigate the National Defense
Program, 1941-1948. Ph.D. dissertation, St. Louis University, 1962.
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