John Chafee - Early Life and Family

Early Life and Family

Chafee was born in Providence, Rhode Island to a politically active family. He was the son of Janet (née Hunter) and John S. Chafee. His great-grandfather, Henry Lippitt, was governor of Rhode Island (1875–1877) and among his great-uncles were a Rhode Island governor, Charles Warren Lippitt, and United States Senator Henry Frederick Lippitt. His uncle, Zechariah Chafee, was a Harvard law professor, and a notable civil libertarian. His son is Rhode Island Governor and former Senator Lincoln Chaffee.

John Chafee graduated from a coeducational primary school, Providence's Gordon School, in 1931 and then attended Providence Country Day School. In 1940, he graduated from Deerfield Academy in Massachusetts. Chafee was in his third year as an undergraduate at Yale University when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. He interrupted his undergraduate studies and enlisted in the Marine Corps, spending his 20th birthday on Guadalcanal fighting on the island from August 8, 1942 until November 1942, when the First Marine Division was relieved, during the Battle of Guadalcanal. After receiving his commission, he fought in the Battle of Okinawa in the spring of 1945 as a Second Lieutenant. Following the war, he received degrees from Yale University in 1947 and Harvard Law School in 1950. At Yale, he was a member of the Delta Kappa Epsilon (Phi chapter) and Skull and Bones fraternities. In 1951, he was recalled to active service to be a Marine rifle company commander during the Korean War with Dog Company, 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines.

Author James Brady in his memoir of the Korean War, and his serving as a Marine under Chafee writes: “Nowhere, at any time, did John Chafee serve more nobly than he did as a Marine officer commanding a rifle company in the mountains of North Korea.” and that "He was the only truly great man I've yet met in my life..."

Chafee became active in behind-the-scenes Rhode Island politics by helping elect a mayor of Providence in the early 1950s. He successfully ran for a seat in the Rhode Island House of Representatives in 1956 and later became the minority leader. He was re-elected in 1958 and 1960, the latter a year when many Republicans were swept from office in his state.