Dakota County History 101: Harold Stassen (1907-2001) Governor of Minnesota

Harold Stassen was born in West St. Paul on April 13, 1907.  By the age of 22, Stassen had already received both bachelor’s and law degrees from the University of Minnesota.

Always the upstart, Stassen organized the law firm of Stassen, Ryan & Olson in South St. Paul in 1929. Just one year later, Stassen was elected to be Dakota County attorney.

Following two terms as county attorney, Stassen was elected the 25th governor of Minnesota in 1937, becoming the youngest governor in the nation at age 31. 

Minnesotans re-elected Stassen in 1939 and again in 1941, even after Stassen told voters he planned to seek active military duty if war erupted. 

The escalation of World War II prompted Stassen to resign on April 26, 1943 and report to Great Lakes Naval Station in Illinois to begin active duty. Stassen served as assistant chief of staff to Admiral W.F. Halsey for nearly two years in the South Pacific. 

As the war swung in favor of the Allies, President Franklin D. Roosevelt began to plan the United Nations Conference. 

Stassen, having caught Roosevelt’s attention in 1943 after writing a Saturday Evening Post article entitled “The United Nations Charter,” was assigned as a delegate to the conference, which began in April 1945. 

Stassen was an instrumental member of the “Four Power” meetings and is credited with getting the Soviet Union to sign a United Nations Charter acceptable to the rest of the world.

On June 25, 1945, the United Nations Charter was enacted when Stassen and many others signed the document. 

Propelled by his newly found national recognition, Stassen decided to seek the Republican nomination for president in 1948. Stassen traveled to the 1948 Republican Convention in Philadelphia in a dead heat with Thomas Dewey and Robert Taft for the party’s nomination.  However, a last minute pact between Dewey and Taft allowed Dewey to gain the Republican nomination for president. 

Philadelphia would become Stassen’s home from 1948-1953 when he served as president of the University of Pennsylvania.  While at the University of Pennsylvania, Stassen developed a professional relationship with Columbia University President Dwight D. Eisenhower. This relationship helped Stassen gain five positions during Eisenhower’s time in the White House. 

From 1952-1958 Eisenhower regularly sought Stassen for advice. He even drafted the Arms Limitation and “Open Skies” proposals Eisenhower presented at the 1955 Geneva Summit.

After the Eisenhower administration ended Stassen became known as the “frequent candidate” for his many attempts to regain political office. Although none were successful, Stassen was always upbeat about having the ability to express his economic views, foreign policies, and interest in world peace to the public during his campaigns. Stassen died March 4, 2001 at age 93.