Thomas Coleman Andrews (February 19, 1899 – October 15, 1983) was an American
accountant, state and federal government official, and the
State's Rights Party candidate for
President of the United States
The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States ...
in
1956
Events
January
* January 1 – The Anglo-Egyptian Condominium ends in Sudan.
* January 8 – Operation Auca: Five U.S. evangelical Christian missionaries, Nate Saint, Roger Youderian, Ed McCully, Jim Elliot and Pete Fleming, ar ...
.
Early and family life
Andrews was born in
Richmond, Virginia, to Cheatham William Andrews (1865–1945; a driver who rose to overseer of a livery stable) and his wife (Dora Lee Pittman), although the family also traced its descent from Elizabethan cleric
Lancelot Andrewes
Lancelot Andrewes (155525 September 1626) was an English bishop and scholar, who held high positions in the Church of England during the reigns of Elizabeth I and James I. During the latter's reign, Andrewes served successively as Bishop of Chi ...
. He had an older brother, Edgar L. Andrews (1897-1950) and a younger brother, Ramon Washington Andrews (1903–1974). Thomas Coleman Andrews married Rae Wilson Reams (1900–1989), and they had two sons:
Thomas Coleman Andrews Jr. and Wilson Pittman Andrews (1929–2012; he would become a U.S. Coast Guard officer and entrepreneur).
Career
After graduating from John Marshall High School in Richmond in 1916, Andrews worked as an office boy at Armour meat packing company in Richmond. He then studied accounting privately, worked with a public accounting firm, F.W. Lafrentz & Company, and was certified as a
CPA in 1921. Andrews formed his own public accounting firm in 1922. He went on leave from his firm in 1931 to become the auditor of public accounts for the Commonwealth of
Virginia
Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...
, a position he held until 1933. He then became the accounting member of the Public Utilities Rate Study Commission of Virginia. He also took leave in 1938 to serve as controller and director of finance for his home city, Richmond.
During World War II, as his sons enlisted in the Air Corps and Coast Guard, Andrews served in the office of the Under-Secretary of War as a fiscal director, and in 1942 was assigned to the staff of the Contract Renegotiation Division in the Office of the Undersecretary of the Navy. He joined the
United States Marine Corps
The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through combi ...
in 1943, which lent him to the State Department, so he worked as an accountant in North Africa and then was a staff officer in the Fourth Marine Aircraft Wing, achieving the rank of major before his retirement.
Andrews then joined the U.S. General Accounting Office and became the first director of its Corporation Audits Division, then returned to private practice in Richmond in 1947. In addition to continuing to work with T. Coleman Andrews & Company (founded in 1922), he founded Bowles, Andrews & Towne (actuaries and pension fund consultants) in 1948) and Andrews and Howell (management engineering consultants) in 1952. He was active in the AICPA, serving as its treasurer (1926–1927), vice president (1948–49), and president (1950–51), and was also a member of its council and executive committees, including of the GABF, and received its gold medal award in 1947. He was AICPA's representative to the Second International Congress of Accountants in 1926 and chairman of the accounting and Auditing study Group of the Hoover Commission in 1948, then chairman of the Virginia Citizens Committee for the Hoover Report.
He accepted an appointment as
Commissioner of Internal Revenue
The Commissioner of Internal Revenue is the head of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), an agency within the United States Department of the Treasury.
The office of Commissioner was created by Congress as part of the Revenue Act of 1862. Section ...
in 1953, becoming the first CPA to hold that office. He left the position in 1955, stating his opposition to the
income tax
An income tax is a tax imposed on individuals or entities (taxpayers) in respect of the income or profits earned by them (commonly called taxable income). Income tax generally is computed as the product of a tax rate times the taxable income. Tax ...
. Andrews ran for president as the
State's Rights Party candidate in the
election of 1956; his running mate was former
Congressman Thomas H. Werdel. Andrews won 107,929 votes (0.17% of the vote),
[1956 Presidential General Election Results](_blank)
/ref> running strongest in the state of Virginia (6.16% of the vote), winning Fayette County, Tennessee
Fayette County is a county located in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 census, the population was 41,990. Its county seat is Somerville. The county was named after the Marquis de la Fayette, French hero of the American Revolution. ...
and Prince Edward County, Virginia
Prince Edward County is located in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 21,849. Its county seat is Farmville.
History
Formation and county seats
Prince Edward County was formed in the Virginia Colony in ...
.
While running for office, Andrews was a trustee and visiting lecturer of the University of Virginia's Graduate School of Business Administration (1955–56). In 1965, Andrews retired from his accounting businesses and worked with his sons in organizing a variety of service enterprise firms.
His son Thomas Coleman Andrews Jr. would become a prominent political organizer and segregationist who thrice won election to the Virginia House of Delegates
The Virginia House of Delegates is one of the two parts of the Virginia General Assembly, the other being the Senate of Virginia. It has 100 members elected for terms of two years; unlike most states, these elections take place during odd-number ...
in the 1960s and who supported Alabama Governor George C. Wallace
George Corley Wallace Jr. (August 25, 1919 – September 13, 1998) was an American politician who served as the 45th governor of Alabama for four terms. A member of the Democratic Party, he is best remembered for his staunch segregationist and ...
for president in 1968.
Death, honors and legacy
Andrews survived his wife by more than a decade before he died in Richmond and was buried at Hollywood Cemetery, as would his sons.
During his lifetime, Andrews received honorary legal degrees from the University of Michigan in 1955 and from Grove City College in 1963. He also received an honorary Doctor of Commercial Science from Pace College in 1954 and an honorary Doctor of Science degree from the University of Richmond, as well as the Department of the Treasury's Alexander Hamilton Award (1955).[Biography at OSU's Accounting Hall of Fame]
/ref>
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Andrews, T. Coleman
Old Right (United States)
Military personnel from Richmond, Virginia
Politicians from Richmond, Virginia
Candidates in the 1956 United States presidential election
20th-century American politicians
1899 births
1983 deaths
United States Marine Corps officers
United States Marine Corps personnel of World War II
American accountants
Virginia Dixiecrats
20th-century far-right politicians in the United States