wfn.org | ABCUSA: STASSEN WAS BAPTIST LAYMAN

[RICH.SCHRAMM@ecunet.org]

AMERICAN BAPTIST NEWS SERVICE 
Office of Communication  
American Baptist Churches USA 
P.O. Box 851, Valley Forge, PA 19482-0851 
Phone: (610)768-2077 / Fax: (610)768-2320 
Web: www.abc-usa.org
Richard W. Schramm, Director 
 E-mail: richard.schramm@abc-usa.org

HAROLD STASSEN DIES AT 93; STATESMAN, 
PRESIDENTIAL ASPIRANT 
AND UNITED NATIONS CHARTER SIGNER 
WAS AMERICAN BAPTIST LAYMAN
 Harold E. Stassen, a long active American Baptist 
layman who was best known to many as a frequent 
unsuccessful candidate for U.S. president but who was a 
nationally prominent political and educational leader in the 
1940s and 1950s, died Sunday.  Stassen, 93, was living in 
a retirement community in Minnesota.
 A life-long American Baptist, Stassen served in 
1963 as president of the (then) American Baptist 
Convention.  He was active in local church life, serving as 
a deacon at Second Baptist Church of Germantown 
(Philadelphia) and at Chevy Chase Baptist Church in 
Washington, D.C.  He also represented the American 
Baptist Convention as a charter signer of the National 
Council of Churches of Christ at its formation in 1950.
 Although he unsuccessfully sought the Republican 
nomination for president on nine occasions over a 44-year 
period, Stassen was a serious challenger in 1948 to New 
York Governor Thomas Dewey, the eventual GOP 
nominee, and Ohio Senator Robert Taft.  Long considered 
one of the leaders of the Republican moderate/liberal 
wing, Stassen frequently spoke out for progressive 
initiatives and peace causes.
 He had earned national attention with his election 
in 1938 as Minnesota's governor--at 31 the youngest 
governor in U.S. history.  He was reelected twice, 
resigning in 1943 to become a top aide to Admiral William 
Halsey during the Pacific campaign of World War II.
 One of Stassen's most important accomplishments 
was his role, through appointment by President Franklin 
Roosevelt, as a leading architect of the United Nations 
Charter in 1945.  He was the last surviving UN Charter 
signatory among the eight U.S. delegates and remained 
through the years an ardent supporter of the UN's work. 
 In 1948 Stassen became president of the 
University of Pennsylvania, where he was credited with 
raising the academic standards of that institution.   In that 
role in 1950 he invited Soviet Prime Minister Josef Stalin 
(who declined) to meet with him and a U.S. delegation to 
pursue means to "stop the drift toward war."  
 He resigned in 1953 to supervise an Eisenhower 
Administration assistance program for Cold War allies.  He 
held several positions in that administration, including 
director of Foreign Operations and cabinet-rank special 
assistant to the president.  Often disagreeing with more 
conservative members of the cabinet, Stassen attempted 
to shift the emphasis of superpower relations from 
brinkmanship (promoted by Secretary of State John Foster 
Dulles) to a relaxation of tensions.  He developed an arms 
control proposal in 1957 that, while not implemented, laid 
the groundwork for future such agreements.
 Beginning in the late 1950s he practiced law in 
Philadelphia.  He also ran unsuccessfully for Pennsylvania 
governor in 1958 and 1966 and Philadelphia mayor in 
1959.
 Stassen's wife of 70 years, Esther, died last 
October.  He is survived a son, Glen Stassen, an American 
Baptist educator; a daughter, Kathleen Berger; seven 
grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.

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