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Claude Raymond Wickard (February 28, 1893-April 29, 1967), served as Secretary of Agriculture under President Franklin D. Roosevelt from 1940 to 1945. Wickard was born on his family farm in Carroll County, Indiana, near Camden. He graduated from Purdue University in 1915, with a bachelor's degree in agriculture, and was chosen as "Master Farmer of Indiana" in 1927 for his improvements in stock feeding and farming. Elected to the Indiana Senate in 1932, he was appointed as Undersecretary of Agriculture. When Henry A. Wallace resigned as Secretary of Agriculture in 1941 to become Vice-President of the United States, Wickard succeeded to the post. During World War II, Wickard headed the War Foods Administration, promoting increased farm production as a matter of patriotism. His slogan was "Food Will Win the War and Write the Peace".
Wickard resigned in 1945 to become chief of the Rural Electrification Administration, until 1953. He ran, unsuccessfully, as the Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate in 1956, losing to incumbent Homer E. Capehart. Wickard was killed in an automobile accident on April 29, 1967, at the age of 74. Reportedly, he ran a stop sign at the intersection of State Highway 18 and U.S. Highway 421 near Delphi, Indiana, and his vehicle was hit by a crushed-stone truck. He was buried at the Maple Lawn Cemetery in Flora, Indiana. [1]
References
- ^ "Agriculture Secretary for FDR Killed in Crash," The Daily Plainsman (Huron, S.D.), April 30, 1967, p.6; "Former Secretary of Agriculture Claude Wickard Killed in Crash," Kokomo Morning Times, April 30, 1967
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