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Senate Years of Service: 1933-1951 Party: Democrat
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THOMAS, Elbert Duncan, a Senator from Utah; born in Salt Lake City, Utah, June 17, 1883; attended the
public schools; graduated from the University of Utah at Salt Lake City in 1906 and from the graduate
department of the University of California, Berkeley 1924; served as a missionary of the Church of
Latter Day Saints in Japan 1907-1912; student traveler in Asia and Europe 1912-1913; instructor of
Latin and Greek at the University of Utah 1914-1916 and secretary of board of regents 1917-1922;
served as major, inspector generals department, Utah National Guard, and United States Reserves
1917-1926; professor of political science at the University of Utah 1924-1933; author; elected as a
Democrat to the United States Senate in 1932; reelected in 1938 and again in 1944 and served from
March 4, 1933, to January 3, 1951; unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1950; chairman,
Committee on Education and Labor (Seventy-fifth through Seventy-eighth Congresses), Committee on
Military Affairs (Seventy-ninth Congress), Committee on Labor and Public Welfare (Eighty-first
Congress); appointed high commissioner of United States trust territories of the Pacific and served
from 1951, until his death in Honolulu, Hawaii, February 11, 1953; interment in City Cemetery, Salt
Lake City, Utah.
BibliographyDictionary of American Biography;
Libby, Justin H. Senators King and Thomas and the Coming War with Japan. Utah
Historical Quarterly 42 (Fall 1974): 370-80; Thomas, Elbert D. The Senate During and
Since the War. Parliamentary Affairs 3 (Winter 1949): 114-26.
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