Franklin Delano Roosevelt III (born July 19, 1938) is an American retired economist and academic. Through his father, he is a grandson of 32nd U.S. president
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...
and
Eleanor Roosevelt
Anna Eleanor Roosevelt () (October 11, 1884November 7, 1962) was an American political figure, diplomat, and activist. She was the first lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945, during her husband President Franklin D. Roosevelt's four ...
, and through his mother, he is related to the prominent
du Pont family
The du Pont family () or Du Pont family is a prominent American family descended from Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours (1739–1817). It has been one of the richest families in the United States since the mid-19th century, when it founded its fo ...
.
Family
Roosevelt was the first child born to
Franklin D. Roosevelt Jr.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt Jr. (August 17, 1914 – August 17, 1988) was an American lawyer, politician, and businessman. He served as a United States congressman from New York from 1949 to 1955 and in 1963 was appointed United States Under Secre ...
and his first wife,
Ethel du Pont
Ethel du Pont Roosevelt-Warren (January 30, 1916 – May 25, 1965) was an American heiress and socialite and a member of the prominent du Pont family. She is known for her widely publicized marriage to Franklin D. Roosevelt Jr., son of the ...
. He was born during his paternal grandfather
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...
's second term as president and was his eighth grandchild to be born. After his birth, his father said, "'Battling' Frank III is a beautiful baby."
He has a younger brother, Christopher du Pont Roosevelt, born 1941, also from his parents' marriage. From his father's later marriages (who married 5 times in total), he has two younger half-sisters, Nancy Suzanne Roosevelt (born 1952) and Laura Delano Roosevelt (born 1959), and a younger half-brother, John Alexander Roosevelt (born 1977). He also had a younger half-brother, Benjamin S. Warren III (born 1954), from his mother's later marriage to attorney Benjamin S. Warren, Jr.
Education and career
After graduating from St. Mark's School in Southborough, Massachusetts, Frank Roosevelt received his
Bachelor of Arts
Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...
in Economics from
Yale University
Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...
in 1961. He was a midshipman in Yale Naval ROTC and commissioned as an Ensign to serve as on a minesweeper. He then received a master's degree from
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
in 1968, and his
Ph.D.
A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is a ...
from
The New School
The New School is a private research university in New York City. It was founded in 1919 as The New School for Social Research with an original mission dedicated to academic freedom and intellectual inquiry and a home for progressive thinkers. ...
. His dissertation was entitled ''Towards a Marxist Critique of the Cambridge School''. His work primarily focused on combining
Marxism
Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...
and
capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for Profit (economics), profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, pric ...
in an attempt to make modern economic systems more "fair" and less prone to the "winner takes all" scenario.
In 1977, he became a professor at
Sarah Lawrence College
Sarah Lawrence College is a Private university, private liberal arts college in Yonkers, New York. The college models its approach to education after the Supervision system, Oxford/Cambridge system of one-on-one student-faculty tutorials. Sara ...
in
Yonkers
Yonkers () is a city in Westchester County, New York, United States. Developed along the Hudson River, it is the third most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City and Buffalo. The population of Yonkers was 211,569 as enu ...
,
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
, where he was chair of the social sciences faculty from 1988 to 1990 and from 1991 to 1993. In retirement, he continued to speak about his grandparents' legacies.
He refers to himself as a "radical" or "alternative" economist.
Rhona Free, one of his former students who is a professor of economics at
Eastern Connecticut State University
Eastern Connecticut State University (Eastern, Eastern Connecticut, Eastern Connecticut State, or ECSU) is a public liberal arts university in Willimantic, Connecticut. Founded in 1889, it is the second-oldest campus in the Connecticut State Univ ...
, was named in 2004 one of four U.S. Professors of the Year by the
Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching
The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching (CFAT) is a U.S.-based education policy and research center. It was founded by Andrew Carnegie in 1905 and chartered in 1906 by an act of the United States Congress. Among its most nota ...
and the
Council for Advancement and Support of Education
The Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) is a nonprofit association of educational institutions. It serves professionals in the field of educational advancement. This field encompasses alumni relations, communications, marketing ...
. In her acceptance speech, she cited Roosevelt as a significant influence, saying, "The most important teacher I ever had was Frank Roosevelt, an economics professor at Sarah Lawrence. He's much more interested in teaching than in testing and in encouraging than in evaluating. In his classes even an average student, as I was, can learn to think critically, express thoughts carefully, and view the world with an open mind."
In 2004, the university awarded him the Lipkin Family Prize for Inspirational Teaching.
Roosevelt was active in the
civil rights movement
The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional Racial segregation in the United States, racial segregation, Racial discrimination ...
. During the
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC, often pronounced ) was the principal channel of student commitment in the United States to the civil rights movement during the 1960s. Emerging in 1960 from the student-led sit-ins at segrega ...
's
Freedom Summer
Freedom Summer, also known as the Freedom Summer Project or the Mississippi Summer Project, was a volunteer campaign in the United States launched in June 1964 to attempt to register as many African-American voters as possible in Mississippi. ...
program in
Mississippi
Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...
in 1964, he was arbitrarily arrested by the
Mississippi Highway Patrol
The Mississippi Highway Safety Patrol is the highway patrol and acting state police agency for the U.S. state of Mississippi, and has law enforcement jurisdiction over the majority of the state.
The Mississippi Highway Patrol specializes in the ...
while driving the civil rights lobbyist
Allard K. Lowenstein
Allard Kenneth Lowenstein (January 16, 1929 – March 14, 1980)Lowenstein's gravestone, Arlington National Cemeteryphoto onlineon the cemetery's official website. Accessed online 28 October 2006.
Roosevelt, who lives in
Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
, was a member of the Board of Trustees of the
Manhattan Country School
Manhattan Country School is an independent coeducational PreK-8 school with its main location in Manhattan and a farm in Roxbury, New York. Founded in 1966, it is distinctive because of its multicultural and progressive educational philosophy, the ...
from 1970 to 2010. In 1981, he led the effort to put the school's tuition system on a sliding scale.
Roosevelt led the effort to build a monument to his grandmother
Eleanor Roosevelt
Anna Eleanor Roosevelt () (October 11, 1884November 7, 1962) was an American political figure, diplomat, and activist. She was the first lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945, during her husband President Franklin D. Roosevelt's four ...
Eleanor Roosevelt Monument
The Eleanor Roosevelt Monument is a memorial located in New York City's Riverside Park, whose centerpiece is a statue of Eleanor Roosevelt, said to be the first monument dedicated to an American president's wife. Hillary Clinton (First Lady at the ...
was unveiled in 1996.
Roosevelt has written in support of
market socialism
Market socialism is a type of economic system involving the public, cooperative, or social ownership of the means of production in the framework of a market economy, or one that contains a mix of worker-owned, nationalized, and privately owned ...
.
Personal life
On June 18, 1962, Roosevelt was married to Grace Rumsey Goodyear, at St. Luke's Protestant Episcopal Church in
Darien, Connecticut
Darien ( ) is a coastal town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. With a population of 21,499 and a land area of just under 13 square miles, it is the smallest town on Connecticut's Gold Coast. It has the youngest population of any n ...
. At the time of their wedding, Grace was a graduate of
Milton Academy
Milton Academy (also known as Milton) is a highly selective, coeducational, independent preparatory, boarding and day school in Milton, Massachusetts consisting of a grade 9–12 Upper School and a grade K–8 Lower School. Boarding is offered ...
and a student at
Smith College
Smith College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts Women's colleges in the United States, women's college in Northampton, Massachusetts. It was chartered in 1871 by Sophia Smith (Smith College ...
. She is the daughter of Austin Goodyear (grandson of
Charles W. Goodyear
Charles Waterhouse Goodyear (October 15, 1846 – April 16, 1911) was an American lawyer, businessman, lumberman, and member of the prominent Goodyear family of New York. Based in Buffalo, New York, along with his brother, Frank, Charles was the ...
) and Louisa (
née
A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...
Robins) Goodyear (granddaughter of Thomas Robins Jr.) who lived at "White Oak Shade" in Darien. They have three children, including a set of twins:
* Phoebe Louisa Roosevelt (born February 25, 1965)
* Nicholas Martin Roosevelt (born June 8, 1966, twin)
* Amelia "Amie" Roosevelt (born June 8, 1966, twin), a concert
violin
The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...
Franklin Delano Roosevelt III
Franklin Delano Roosevelt III (born July 19, 1938) is an American retired economist and academic. Through his father, he is a grandson of 32nd U.S. president Franklin D. Roosevelt and Eleanor Roosevelt, and through his mother, he is related to t ...