William Haddad was an American political operative, lobbyist, and journalist who held a series of high-profile jobs during his lifetime.
20 Facts About William Haddad
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William Haddad is most known for being an aide to the Kennedy Family, during which he helped launch the Peace Corps with R Sargent Shriver, worked in the 1960 presidential campaign of John F Kennedy and the 1968 presidential campaign of Robert F Kennedy.
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William Haddad assisted prominent Democratic Party figures such as Mario Cuomo and Estes Kefauver and led the fight for affordable medicine as a lobbyist and businessman.
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William Haddad graduated from St Petersburg Junior College in Florida and received a bachelor's degree from Columbia College in 1954.
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William Haddad studied at the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism.
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William Haddad first worked for Senator Estes Kefauver from 1954 to 1956 and helped secure his nomination as Adlai Stevenson's vice-presidential running mate, beating out John F Kennedy at the 1956 Democratic National Convention.
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William Haddad later worked for the New York Post and helped expose the corruption of Robert Moses, which led to his eventual downfall.
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William Haddad won a Polk Award in 1958 and shared another in 1959 for his investigate reporting.
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William Haddad then took a break from his journalism career and served as special assistant to John F Kennedy during his presidential campaign.
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William Haddad served as an aide to Sargent Shriver, with whom he helped found the Peace Corps and served as its as first associate director and inspector general from 1961 to 1963.
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William Haddad resigned from the newspaper after spending a few months on the investigative team and unsuccessfully challenged Democratic Congressman Leonard Farbstein for his seat in New York's 19th congressional district.
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William Haddad advised Robert F Kennedy during his presidential campaign in 1968, served on the Board of Education of New York, and enlisted prominent activist Roy Innis in a newspaper called The Manhattan Tribune to provide a biracial perspective.
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In 1972, William Haddad sent a letter to investigative journalist Jack Anderson warning him of a tip-off from a private investigator about a plan by the Nixon administration to wiretap the telephones at the Democratic National Committee.
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William Haddad left the company after discovering its financial management and published a book, Hard Driving: My Years With John DeLorean, chronicling the rise and fall of their joint venture.
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William Haddad then served as Mario Cuomo's campaign manager and helped his election as Governor of New York in 1982.
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William Haddad's lobbying was instrumental in the passing of the Drug Price Competition and Patent Term Restoration Act in 1984, which helped launch the generic drug industry in the United States.
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In 1959, Haddad married Kate Roosevelt, daughter of Congressman James Roosevelt and Betsey Cushing Roosevelt Whitney, granddaughter of President Franklin D Roosevelt and pioneering neurosurgeon Harvey Cushing.
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William Haddad's mother divorced James Roosevelt and was remarried to John Hay Whitney, the American Ambassador to the United Kingdom, who adopted Roosevelt as his daughter.
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William Haddad died on April 30,2020, due to congestive heart failure.
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William Haddad is survived by Lulie Haddad, Laura Whitney-Thomas and Andrea Haddad, children from his first marriage, Amanda Reina and Robert Haddad from his second marriage, a stepson, 13 grandchildren, and two great-grandsons.