Family and Early Career
William Mark Felt was born on August 17, 1913, in Twin Falls, Idaho, the son of carpenter and building contractor Mark Earl Felt and his wife, the former Rose R. Dygert. His paternal grandfather was a Free Will Baptist minister. His maternal grandparents were born in Canada and Scotland, respectively; through his maternal grandfather, Felt was a relative of American Revolutionary War General Nicholas Herkimer. After graduating from Twin Falls High School in 1931, he received a BA from the University of Idaho in 1935, and was a member and president of the Gamma Gamma chapter of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity.
He went to Washington, D.C. to work in the office of U.S. Senator James P. Pope (D-Idaho). In 1938, Felt married Audrey Robinson of Gooding, Idaho, whom he had known when they were both students at the University of Idaho. She had come to Washington to work at the Bureau of Internal Revenue, and they were wed by the chaplain of the United States House of Representatives, the Rev. Sheara Montgomery. Audrey, who died in 1984, and Felt had two children, Joan and Mark.
Felt stayed on with Pope's successor in the Senate, David Worth Clark (D-Idaho). Felt attended The George Washington University Law School at night, earning his law degree in 1940, and was admitted to the District of Columbia bar in 1941.
Upon graduation, Felt took a position at the Federal Trade Commission but did not enjoy the work. His workload was very light. He was assigned a case to investigate whether a toilet paper brand called "Red Cross" was misleading consumers into thinking it was endorsed by the American Red Cross. Felt wrote in his memoir:
- My research, which required days of travel and hundreds of interviews, produced two definite conclusions:
- 1. Most people did use toilet tissue.
- 2. Most people did not appreciate being asked about it.
- That was when I started looking for other employment.
He applied for a job with the FBI in November 1941 and was accepted. His first day at the Bureau was January 26, 1942.
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