1. Edward Grant Stockdale, was a Florida businessman and friend of President John F Kennedy who served as United States Ambassador to Ireland from 1961 to 1962.
24 Facts About Grant Stockdale
1. 2.
Grant Stockdale attended the University of Miami, was voted President of his freshman class, was reelected President of his sophomore class, served as president, Phi Alpha fraternity, and was the first University of Miami graduate to become a United States Ambassador.
3.
Grant Stockdale played varsity football in 1938 and 1939, and graduated with a degree in Business Administration.
4.
Grant Stockdale worked as a salesman and then as a manager for a venetian blind company.
5.
Grant Stockdale then worked in real estate and was elected President of the Miami Junior Chamber of Commerce.
6.
Grant Stockdale left the service as a 1st Lieutenant and remained a Major in the US Marine Corps Reserves.
7.
Grant Stockdale became Smathers' administrative assistant briefly and served in the Florida Legislature from 1948 to 1949.
8.
Grant Stockdale introduced the first anti-Ku Klux Klan legislation in a southern state, designed to prohibit the wearing of masks and hoods in public.
9.
Grant Stockdale secured House passage of a Birth Secrecy Bill that made the birth certificates of illegitimate children confidential.
10.
Grant Stockdale led a successful campaign against a tax on hotels and rooming houses and supported legislation to increase criminal penalties for child molestation.
11.
Grant Stockdale lost the Democratic primary for his House seat in May 1950 to Dante Fascell.
12.
Grant Stockdale served on the Dade County Commission from 1952 to 1956.
13.
Grant Stockdale staged a one-man revolt in September 1954 by making an issue of the commission's practice of conducting closed-door meetings and requiring unanimous votes.
14.
In 1959 and 1960 Stockdale headed the Florida State committee to elect John F Kennedy president.
15.
Kennedy nominated Grant Stockdale to serve as Ambassador to Ireland in February 1961.
16.
Time magazine criticized Kennedy for nominating Grant Stockdale after promising during the campaign to appoint ambassadors on the basis of ability alone.
17.
Congress later investigated those vending machine companies as part of the Bobby Baker scandal investigations into bribery of members of Congress, though Grant Stockdale was not a target of the investigation.
18.
Grant Stockdale presented his credentials in Dublin on May 17,1961, and served until July 7,1962.
19.
On January 1,1963, Grant Stockdale sat with Kennedy to watch the Orange Bowl game between the Alabama Crimson Tide and the Oklahoma Sooners, for which the President performed the opening coin toss.
20.
Grant Stockdale was invited by Kennedy to participate in the May 30,1963, Memorial Day ceremonies at Arlington National Cemetery, as the President laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
21.
In 1954, Grant Stockdale was named a member of Iron Arrow, an honorary organization of University of Miami graduates.
22.
Grant Stockdale served terms as president of the University of Miami Alumni Association and the Miami Jaycees.
23.
Grant Stockdale was married to the poet Alice Boyd Stockdale, nee Magruder.
24.
Grant Stockdale died in a fall from his office on the 13th floor of the DuPont Building in Miami, Florida, on December 2,1963, one week after the funeral and just ten days after the assassination of President Kennedy.