Library of Congress

HAWKES, Albert Wahl, a Senator from New Jersey; born in Chicago, Ill., November 20, 1878; attended the public schools; graduated from Chicago College of Law in 1900, and admitted to the bar the same year; studied chemistry at Lewis Institute (now the Illinois Institute of Technology), Chicago, Ill., for two years; engaged in the chemical business; during the First World War served as director of the Chemical Alliance, Washington, D.C., 1917-1918; president of Congoleum-Nairn, Inc., at Kearny, N.J., 1927-1942, becoming chairman of the board in 1937; president and director of the Chamber of Commerce of the United States 1941-1942; member of the Newark Labor Board and later appointed to the Board to Maintain Industrial Peace in New Jersey 1941-1942; member of the National War Labor Board, Washington, D.C., 1942; elected as a Republican to the United States Senate in 1942 and served from January 3, 1943, to January 3, 1949; was not a candidate for renomination in 1948; resumed former business activities in Montclair, N.J., until 1961 when he moved to Pasadena, Calif.; trustee of the Freedoms Foundation, where the Hawkes Library, Valley Forge, Pa., was named after him; died at Palm Desert, Calif., May 9, 1971; interment in Mt. Hebron Cemetery, Montclair, N.J.