Robert Patterson Lamont (December 1, 1867February 20, 1948) was

United States secretary of commerce The United States secretary of commerce (SecCom) is the head of the United States Department of Commerce. The secretary serves as the principal advisor to the president of the United States on all matters relating to commerce. The secretary rep ...

March 5, 1929 to August 7, 1932, during the administration of

Herbert Hoover Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964) was an American politician who served as the 31st president of the United States from 1929 to 1933 and a member of the Republican Party, holding office during the onset of the Gr ...

. He was commerce secretary during difficult times for commerce, as a result of the Great Depression.

Life

Lamont was born in

Detroit, Michigan Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at ...

on December 1, 1867, to Isabella (née Patterson) and Robert Lamont. He was educated at the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

, graduating in 1891 with a degree in

civil engineering Civil engineering is a professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including public works such as roads, bridges, canals, dams, airports, sewa ...

. He worked as an engineer at the 1893

World's Columbian Exposition The World's Columbian Exposition (also known as the Chicago World's Fair) was a world's fair held in Chicago in 1893 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World in 1492. The centerpiece of the Fair, hel ...

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

. Lamont married Helen Gertrude Trotter on October 24, 1894. They had three children: (Robert Patterson II, Gertrude and Dorothy Lamont). In 1897, he was hired by the Simplex Railway Appliance Company as first vice president. In 1905, the company was bought out by

American Steel Foundries The Standard Steel Casting Company, commonly referred to as Thurlow Works, was a steel production and steel casting facility founded in Chester, Pennsylvania in 1883 by shipbuilder John Roach. The company was established primarily to supply steel ...

and Lamont remained a vice president. In 1912, he was appointed company president, a position he held until his Hoover administration appointment in 1929. Lamont was Secretary of Commerce from 1929 until 1932, when he resigned in order to become president of the

American Iron and Steel Institute The American Iron and Steel Institute is an association of North American steel producers. With its predecessor organizations, is one of the oldest trade associations in the United States, dating back to 1855. It assumed its present form in 1908 ...

, where he stayed until 1934. Lamont died in

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, in 1948. His grandson, Robert L. Belknap, was a professor of Russian literature at

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 ...

References

1867 births 1948 deaths Hoover administration cabinet members 20th-century American politicians Politicians from Chicago Politicians from Detroit People from Lake Forest, Illinois People from Vilas County, Wisconsin United States Secretaries of Commerce University of Michigan College of Engineering alumni {{US-gov-bio-stub