Theodore Douglas Robinson (April 28, 1883 – April 10, 1934) was an American politician from

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 * '' ...

who served as the

Assistant Secretary of the Navy Assistant Secretary of the Navy (ASN) is the title given to certain civilian senior officials in the United States Department of the Navy. From 1861 to 1954, the Assistant Secretary of the Navy was the second-highest civilian office in the Depar ...

from November 1924 to 1929. He was a member of the

Roosevelt family The Roosevelt family is an American political family from New York whose members have included two United States presidents, a First Lady, and various merchants, bankers, politicians, inventors, clergymen, artists, and socialites. The progeny ...

through his mother and was the eldest nephew of President Theodore "T.R." Roosevelt, Jr. (1858–1919). As an Oyster Bay Roosevelt, Theodore was a descendant of the

Schuyler family The Schuyler family ( /ˈskaɪlər/; Dutch pronunciation: xœylər was a prominent Dutch family in New York and New Jersey in the 18th and 19th centuries, whose descendants played a critical role in the formation of the United States (especiall ...

Early life

Theodore Douglas Robinson was born on April 28, 1883, in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

Douglas Robinson Jr. Douglas Robinson Jr. (January 3, 1855 – September 12, 1918) was an American businessman who was married to Corinne Roosevelt, a sister of U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt and an aunt of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. Early life Robinson was b ...

and Corinne Roosevelt. He attended St. Paul's School in

Concord, New Hampshire Concord () is the capital city of the U.S. state of New Hampshire and the seat of Merrimack County. As of the 2020 census the population was 43,976, making it the third largest city in New Hampshire behind Manchester and Nashua. The village of ...

and graduated from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

in 1904.

Family

His father was a real estate dealer who was president of Douglas Robinson Company, Charles S. Brown Company, and the Douglas Land Company, trustee of the Atlantic Mutual Insurance Company, director of the

Equitable Life Insurance Society Equitable Holdings, Inc. (formerly The Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States and AXA Equitable Life Insurance Company, and also known as The Equitable) is an American financial services and insurance company that was founded in 1 ...

and the Astor Trust Company. He had three younger siblings: Corinne, Monroe, and Stewart. His maternal grandparents were Theodore "Thee" Roosevelt Sr., a businessman/philanthropist, and Martha Stewart "Mittie" Bulloch, a socialite. His paternal grandparents were Douglas Robinson Sr. and Frances Monroe, who was a grandniece of President James Monroe.

Career

In 1910, he first ran for the

New York State Legislature The New York State Legislature consists of the two houses that act as the state legislature of the U.S. state of New York: The New York State Senate and the New York State Assembly. The Constitution of New York does not designate an official ...

, but was defeated in the primaries by

Charles S. Millington Charles Stephen Millington (March 13, 1855 – October 25, 1913) was a United States House of Representatives, U.S. Representative from New York (state), New York. Born in Norway, New York, Millington attended the district schools of Poland, th ...

. He ran again in 1912, and was elected to the 135th Legislature, serving in the

New York State Assembly The New York State Assembly is the lower house of the New York State Legislature, with the New York State Senate being the upper house. There are 150 seats in the Assembly. Assembly members serve two-year terms without term limits. The Assem ...

. In 1912, Robinson was elected chairman of his uncle Theodore's Progressive "Bull Moose" Party in the State of New York, and served until 1914. From 1917 until 1918, he was a Republican member of the

New York State Senate The New York State Senate is the upper house of the New York State Legislature; the New York State Assembly is its lower house. Its members are elected to two-year terms; there are no term limits. There are 63 seats in the Senate. Partisan com ...

1917 Events Below, the events of World War I have the "WWI" prefix. January * January 9 – WWI – Battle of Rafa: The last substantial Ottoman Army garrison on the Sinai Peninsula is captured by the Egyptian Expeditionary Force's ...

and

1918 This year is noted for the end of the First World War, on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, as well as for the Spanish flu pandemic that killed 50–100 million people worldwide. Events Below, the events ...

(both 32nd D.). Also in 1918, he was campaign manager for then

Attorney General of New York The attorney general of New York is the chief legal officer of the U.S. state of New York and head of the Department of Law of the state government. The office has been in existence in some form since 1626, under the Dutch colonial government o ...

Merton E. Lewis Merton Elmer Lewis (December 10, 1861 – May 2, 1937) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 51st Attorney General of New York state. Life He was born on December 10, 1861, in Webster, Monroe County, New York, the son of Charl ...

's bid for the Republican nomination for governor against incumbent Governor

Charles S. Whitman Charles Seymour Whitman (September 29, 1868March 29, 1947) was an American lawyer who served as the 41st Governor of New York from January 1, 1915, to December 31, 1918. An attorney and politician, he also served as a delegate from New York to t ...

. Lewis lost the nomination to Whitman, who lost his reelection campaign to

Al Smith Alfred Emanuel Smith (December 30, 1873 – October 4, 1944) was an American politician who served four terms as Governor of New York and was the Democratic Party's candidate for president in 1928. The son of an Irish-American mother and a C ...

. Later in 1918, he declined renomination and enlisted in the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

, becoming an officer at

Camp Zachary Taylor Camp Zachary Taylor was a military training camp in Louisville, Kentucky. It opened in 1917, to train soldiers for U.S. involvement in World War I, and was closed three years later. It was initially commanded by Guy Carleton and after the war it ...

, a training camp in

Louisville, Kentucky Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border ...

. He returned to the New York State Senate and served again from 1921 to 1924, sitting in the 144th, 145th, 146th and

147th New York State Legislature The 147th New York State Legislature, consisting of the New York State Senate and the New York State Assembly, met from January 2 to April 11, 1924, during the second year of Al Smith's second tenure as Governor of New York, in Albany. Bac ...

s, all four with the 35th district. During his time with the New York State Senate, he introduced a number of bills focusing on stray cats, census of men and materials, and revocation of the New York branch of the German American Alliance. In 1921, along with Assemblyman Joseph Steinberg, he led an investigation into John Francis Hylan, the then

Mayor of New York City The mayor of New York City, officially Mayor of the City of New York, is head of the executive branch of the government of New York City and the chief executive of New York City. The mayor's office administers all city services, public property ...

. In 1924, he was appointed

Calvin Coolidge Calvin Coolidge (born John Calvin Coolidge Jr.; ; July 4, 1872January 5, 1933) was the 30th president of the United States from 1923 to 1929. Born in Vermont, Coolidge was a History of the Republican Party (United States), Republican lawyer ...

, taking the reins from his cousin, Theodore Roosevelt III. He served from November 1924 to 1929, and during his term changed the

Navy A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval warfare, naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral zone, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and ...

's slogan from "Join the Navy and See the World" to "Join the Navy and Show the World."

Personal life

In 1904, he married his sixth cousin Helen Rebecca Roosevelt (1881–1962), daughter of James "Rosey" Roosevelt Roosevelt (1854–1927) and Helen Schermerhorn Astor (1855–1893) from the Astor family. Rosey was the half-brother of President

Franklin Delano 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 ...

. Together they had: *Douglas Roosevelt Robinson (1906–1964), who in 1933 married Louise Miller, daughter of former New York Gov.

Nathan L. Miller Nathan Lewis Miller (October 10, 1868 – June 26, 1953) was an American lawyer and politician who was Governor of New York from 1921 to 1922. Early life and education Nathan Miller was born on October 10, 1868, the son of Samuel Miller, a te ...

. They divorced in 1948 and he married Micheline Ayaïs. *Helen Rebecca Robinson (1907–1980), who married John Arthur Hinckley (1906–1940) in 1930. After his death, she married George Walford Cutting (1892–1961) *Elizabeth Mary Robinson (1909–1979), who married Jacques Blaise de Sibour (1905–1979), son of

Jules Henri de Sibour Jules Gabriel Henri de Sibour (December 23, 1872 – November 4, 1938) was a French architect who worked in Washington, DC. Early life He was born in Paris, France, to Vicomte Gabriel de Sibour and Mary Louisa Johnson of Belfast, Maine. He mov ...

. They divorced and on July 9, 1963, she married Nelson T. Hartson (1887–1967) *Martha Douglas Robinson (1912–1912) *Alida Douglas Robinson (1915–1994), who married Kenneth S. Walker. They divorced and in 1944, she married Dean Sage (d. 1963). After his death, she married Edward T. H. Talmage Jr. in 1971, great-grandson of John Frelinghuysen Talmage. Robinson lived in

Herkimer County, New York Herkimer County is a county in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2020 census, the population was 60,139. Its county seat is Herkimer. The county was created in 1791 north of the Mohawk River out of part of Montgomery County. It is named a ...

, where his family had an estate since 1725 called "Henderson House". He died of

pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severity ...

on April 10, 1934, after being ill for only a few days. His funeral was at the family estate, His pallbearers were Edmund B. Rogers, Franklin B. Lord, G. Palen Snow, Elbridge G. Chadwick, Wendell Blagden, Warren Motley, John Cutter, and James Hackson. The funeral was attended by

First Lady First lady is an unofficial title usually used for the wife, and occasionally used for the daughter or other female relative, of a non-monarchical A monarchy is a form of government in which a person, the monarch, is head of state fo ...

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 ...

, Col.

Theodore Roosevelt Theodore Roosevelt Jr. ( ; October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), often referred to as Teddy or by his initials, T. R., was an American politician, statesman, soldier, conservationist, naturalist, historian, and writer who served as the 26t ...

and Eleanor Alexander Roosevelt, Mr. and Mrs.

Kermit Roosevelt Kermit Roosevelt MC (October 10, 1889 – June 4, 1943) was an American businessman, soldier, explorer, and writer. A son of Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th President of the United States, Kermit graduated from Harvard College, served in both Wo ...

, Warren D. Robbins,

Courtland Nichol Courtland may refer to: Places in the United States * Courtland (RTA Rapid Transit station), Cleveland, Ohio * Courtland, Alabama, a town * Courtland, Arizona, a ghost town * Courtland, California, a census-designated place * Courtland, Kansas, a ...

s, Mr. and Mrs. Phillip McKim Garrison, and Mr. and Mrs. Trubeee Davison, and Senators

Henry I. Patrie Henry I. Patrie (February 12, 1874 – March 3, 1935) was an American businessman and politician from New York. Life He was born on February 12, 1874, in Livingston, Columbia County, New York, the son of John H. Patrie and Marietta Gardner Patrie ...

Walter W. Stokes Walter Watson Stokes (August 10, 1880 – March 27, 1960) was an American financier and politician from New York (state), New York. Life He was born on August 10, 1880, in Manchester, Vermont, Manchester, Bennington County, Vermont, the son of fi ...

, and

Henry D. Williams Henry D. Williams (c. 1893 in Utica, Oneida County, New York – August 7, 1934 in Utica, Oneida Co., NY) was an American lawyer and politician from New York. Life He graduated from Cornell University. He practiced law in Utica. Williams was a m ...

Memberships

He was a member of the

Masons Mason may refer to: Occupations * Mason, brick mason, or bricklayer, a craftsman who lays bricks to construct brickwork, or who lays any combination of stones, bricks, cinder blocks, or similar pieces * Stone mason, a craftsman in the stone-cutt ...

and the Elks as well as the Racquet and Tennis Club,

Harvard Club Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan cler ...

, Union League, Republican Club, Knickerbocker Club,

The Brook The Brook is a private club located at 111 East 54th Street in Manhattan inNew York City. It was founded in 1903 by a group of prominent men who belonged to other New York City private clubs, such as the Knickerbocker Club and the Union Club.

, Downtown Association of New York City, Meadow Brook Golf Club,

Piping Rock Club Piping Rock Club is a country club in Matinecock, New York. It falls within the ZIP Code boundaries of Locust Valley, New York. History The Piping Rock clubhouse was designed by American designer Guy Lowell and built in 1911. Lowell based his ...

, National Golf Links of America,

Fort Orange Club A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...

of Albany, Fort Schuyler Club, Yahnundasis Golf Club of Utica and the Mohawk Valley Country Club.

References