44 Facts About Harry Hopkins

Harry Lloyd Hopkins was an American statesman, public administrator, and presidential advisor.

Harry Hopkins later oversaw the $50 billion Lend-Lease program of military aid to the Allies and, as Roosevelt's personal envoy, played a pivotal role in shaping the alliance between the United States and the United Kingdom.

Harry Hopkins accepted a position in New York City's Bureau of Child Welfare and worked for various social work and public health organizations.

Harry Hopkins was elected president of the National Association of Social Workers in 1923.

Harry Hopkins enjoyed close relationships with President Roosevelt and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, and was considered a potential successor to the president until the late 1930s, when his health began to decline due to a long-running battle with stomach cancer.

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From 1940 until 1943, Harry Hopkins lived in the White House and assisted the president in the management of American foreign policy, particularly toward the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union.

Harry Hopkins's health continued to decline, and he died in 1946 at the age of 55.

Harry Hopkins was born at 512 Tenth Street in Sioux City, Iowa, the fourth child of four sons and one daughter of David Aldona and Anna Harry Hopkins.

Harry Hopkins's father, born in Bangor, Maine, ran a harness shop, but his real passion was bowling, and he eventually returned to it as a business.

Anna Harry Hopkins, born in Hamilton, Ontario, had moved at an early age to Vermillion, South Dakota, where she married David.

Harry Hopkins's was deeply religious and active in the affairs of the Methodist church.

Shortly after Harry Hopkins was born, the family moved successively to Council Bluffs, Iowa, and Kearney and Hastings, Nebraska.

Harry Hopkins attended Grinnell College and soon after his graduation in 1912 took a job with Christodora House, a social settlement house in New York City's Lower East Side ghetto.

Harry Hopkins moved to New Orleans where he worked for the American Red Cross as director of Civilian Relief, Gulf Division.

Harry Hopkins helped draft a charter for the American Association of Social Workers and was elected its president in 1923.

In 1922, Harry Hopkins returned to New York City, where the AICP was involved with the Milbank Memorial Fund and the State Charities Aid Association in running three health demonstrations in New York State.

Harry Hopkins became manager of the Bellevue-Yorkville health project and assistant director of the AICP.

Harry Hopkins supervised the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, the Civil Works Administration, and the Works Progress Administration .

Harry Hopkins feuded with Harold Ickes, who ran a rival program, the Public Works Administration, which created jobs but did not require applicants to be unemployed or on relief.

Harry Hopkins started programs for youth and for artists and writers .

Harry Hopkins was concerned with rural areas but increasingly focused on cities in the Great Depression.

Harry Hopkins went to Moscow in July 1941 to make personal contact with Joseph Stalin.

Harry Hopkins recommended and Roosevelt accepted the inclusion of the Soviets in Lend Lease.

Harry Hopkins made Lend Lease decisions in terms of Roosevelt's broad foreign policy goals.

Harry Hopkins promoted an aggressive war against Germany and successfully urged Roosevelt to use the Navy to protect convoys headed for Britain before the US had entered the war in December 1941.

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Harry Hopkins was a firm supporter of China, which received Lend-Lease aid for its military and air force.

Harry Hopkins wielded more diplomatic power than the entire State Department.

Harry Hopkins continued to live in the White House and saw the President more often than any other advisor.

In mid-1943, Harry Hopkins faced a barrage of criticism from Republicans and the press that he had abused his position for personal profit.

Newspapers ran stories detailing sumptuous dinners that Harry Hopkins attended while he was making public calls for sacrifice.

Harry Hopkins briefly considered suing the Chicago Tribune for libel after a story that compared him to Grigory Rasputin, the famous courtier of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, but he was dissuaded by Roosevelt.

Harry Hopkins tried to resign after Roosevelt died, but President Harry S Truman sent Hopkins on one more mission to Moscow.

Harry Hopkins had three sons who served in the armed forces during the war: Robert, David and Stephen.

Harry Hopkins was the top American official assigned to dealing with Soviet officials during World War II.

Harry Hopkins liaised with Soviet officials from the middle ranks to the very highest, including Stalin.

Harry Hopkins often explained Roosevelt's plans to Stalin and other top Soviet officials to enlist Soviet support for American objectives, an endeavor that met with limited success.

In turn, Harry Hopkins passed on Stalin's stated goals and needs to Roosevelt.

Harry Hopkins continued to be a target of attacks even after his death.

Verne W Newton, the author of FDR and the Holocaust, said that no writer discussing Hopkins has identified any secrets disclosed or any decision in which he distorted American priorities to help communism.

Harry Hopkins conducted policy vis-a-vis Stalin with mere dogmatic confidence in his own unshakeable sentiments.

In 1913, Harry Hopkins married Ethel Gross, a Hungarian-Jewish immigrant active in New York City's Progressive movement.

In 1931, Harry Hopkins married Barbara Duncan, who died of cancer six years later.

In 1942, Harry Hopkins married Louise Gill Macy in the Yellow Oval Room at the White House.

Harry Hopkins's body was cremated and his ashes interred in his former college town at the Hazelwood Cemetery in Grinnell, Iowa.