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William Joseph "Bill" Dodd (November 25, 1909 – November 16, 1991) held five important positions in Louisiana government in the mid-twentieth century, including the offices of state representative, lieutenant governor, state auditor, president and member of the State Board of Education, and state education superintendent, but he never achieved his ultimate goal: the state's powerful Napoleonic-style governorship. Twice Dodd failed to win the pivotal Democratic gubernatorial nomination: 1952 and 1959. To his critics, he was a Long "hatchet man." To his admirers, he never let his defeats sour his optimistic spirit, his patriotism, or his devotion to his adopted home state. ==From Liberty, Texas, to Allen Parish, Louisiana== Dodd was born in a logging camp in Liberty, Texas, near Houston, to Daniel David Dodd and the former Nancy J. Pawley. The family relocated to Sabine Parish (parish seat: Many, pronounced MAN NIE) between Shreveport and Lake Charles. He graduated from Zwolle High School in Zwolle in Sabine Parish. After high school, Dodd played professional baseball for teams in Monroe, Louisiana, and Cody, Wyoming. In Wyoming, one of Dodd's teammates was a future Republican governor and U.S. senator, Milward L. Simpson. While he was in Cody, Dodd became a friend of the Simpson family and often babysat the two Simpson sons, Pete Simpson and Alan K. Simpson, both of whom eventually served in the Wyoming House of Representatives. Alan Simpson also served from 1979 to 1997 as a Republican U.S. senator from Wyoming. For years afterwards, Dodd maintained contact with the Simpson family. Dodd, who was white, was said, in his own words, to resemble the popular black boxer Joe Louis. But Dodd was playing baseball, not boxing. After his baseball years, Dodd attended Northwestern State University (then Louisiana Normal School) in Natchitoches, where he was a member of Sigma Tau Gamma Fraternity. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in 1934 and taught school for a number of years at Oakdale High School in Oakdale in Allen Parish. Dodd recalled in his memoirs that he earned $140 per month as a teacher, with many duties outside the classroom. A high school student advised Dodd in 1939 that he should run for the state legislature so that he would have a greater impact on the people of the state. On August 27, 1939, Dodd married one of his former students, the former Verone Ford (February 18, 1918 – September 25, 2005). The couple had two sons, William Ford Dodd (born August 17, 1947), often called "Bill, Jr.," and Leonard Bruce Dodd (born 1951) of Clinton, the seat of East Feliciana Parish. Another of Dodd's former students was future state Treasurer Mary Evelyn Dickerson Parker, whom he taught speech and later helped to secure a college scholarship and a job in the Earl Kemp Long administration. Dodd in his memoirs described Mrs. Parker as "a born ingrate" because she often tried to undercut his political aspirations. Dodd's political career, spurred by a student's advice, hence began with his election in 1940 to the Louisiana House of Representatives from Allen Parish. He unseated four-term incumbent Democrat David Cole, who had been an ally of the disgraced Richard W. Leche administration. In 1932, Cole, who had a fiery temper, clashed on the House floor with a colleague and both men came away with scrapes and bruises. (Richard D. White, Jr., ''Kingfish'', Random House, 2006, pp. 154–155) Dodd recalled that the families of his students worked hard to get him elected to the legislature, and he never forgot their support. Dodd served in the House under the anti-Long Governors Sam Houston Jones of Lake Charles and James Houston "Jimmie" Davis, originally of Jackson Parish. Jones defeated Earl Long in 1940, and Davis topped the Long factional choice of former U.S. Representative Lewis L. Morgan of Covington, the seat of St. Tammany Parish, in the 1944 primary runoff. Although he was exempt from conscription, Dodd volunteered for the U.S. Army during World War II and served as a lieutenant in Europe. He was reelected to his second term in the legislature while he was still in the military. When he returned home in 1945, he began his legal studies at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. He received his LL.B. degree less than two years later and was admitted to the Louisiana bar. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Bill Dodd」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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