Claude Raymond Wickard (February 28, 1893 – April 29, 1967) served as Secretary of Agriculture under President Franklin D. Roosevelt from 1940 to 1945. Wickard was born on his family farm in Carroll County, Indiana, near Camden. He graduated from Purdue University in 1915, with a bachelor's degree in agriculture, and was chosen as "Master Farmer of Indiana" in 1927 for his improvements in stock feeding and farming. Elected to the Indiana Senate in 1932, he was appointed as Undersecretary of Agriculture. When Henry A. Wallace resigned as Secretary of Agriculture in 1940 to run for Vice-President of the United States, Wickard succeeded to the post. During World War II, Wickard headed the War Foods Administration, promoting increased farm production as a matter of patriotism. His slogan was "Food Will Win the War and Write the Peace".
Wickard resigned in 1945 to become chief of the Rural Electrification Administration, until 1953. He ran, unsuccessfully, as the Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate in 1956, losing to incumbent Homer E. Capehart. Wickard was killed in an automobile accident on April 29, 1967, at the age of 74. Reportedly, he ran a stop sign at the intersection of State Highway 18 and U.S. Highway 421 near Delphi, Indiana, and his vehicle was hit by a crushed-stone truck. He was buried at the Maple Lawn Cemetery in Flora, Indiana.
Famous quotes containing the words claude r and/or claude:
“Look at your lake, Christine. You’ll love it here, when you get used to the dark. And you’ll love the dark, too. It’s friendly. And peaceful. It brings rest and relief from pain. It’s right under the Opera. The music comes down and the darkness distills it, cleanses it of the suffering that made it, then it’s all beauty and life here is like a resurrection.”
—Eric Taylor, and Leroux. Arthur Lubin. Erique Claudin (Claude Rains)
“I was so angry to realize I’m a Quebecois, with no past, no history, just two cans of maple syrup.”
—Jean Claude Lauzon (b. 1954)