James Roosevelt

James Roosevelt II (December 23, 1907 – August 13, 1991) was an American businessman, Marine, activist, and Democratic Party politician. The eldest son of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Eleanor Roosevelt, he served as an official Secretary to the President for his father and was later elected to the United States House of Representatives representing California, serving 5 terms from 1955 to 1965. He received the Navy Cross while serving as a Marine Corps officer during World War II. Early life & career Roosevelt was born in New York City at 123 East 36th Street. He was named after his grandfather on his father's side James Roosevelt I. He attended the Potomac School and St. Albans School in Washington, D.C., and the Groton School in Massachusetts. At Groton, he rowed, played football, and was a prefect in his senior year. After graduating in 1926, he attended Harvard, where he rowed with the freshman and junior varsity crews. At Harvard, he followed family traditions in joining the Signet Society and Hasty Pudding Club, of which both his father and his maternal granduncle and paternal fifth cousin once removed, President Theodore Roosevelt, had been members, the Fly Club, which his father had joined, and the Institute of the 1770. He graduated from Harvard in 1930 and was elected permanent treasurer of his class. After graduation, Roosevelt enrolled in the Boston University School of Law. He also took a sales job with the firm of Victor De Gerard of Boston in 1930, remaining with that firm when it amalgamated with the John Paulding Meade Company which, in turn, amalgamated with O'Brion, Russell and Company in 1932. Roosevelt abandoned his law studies within a year due to his success at the firm. In 1932, he started his own insurance agency, Roosevelt & Sargent, in partnership with John A. Sargent. As president of Roosevelt & Sargent he made a substantial fortune (about $500,000 or more than $9 million in 2018 dollars). He resigned from the firm in 1937, when he officially went to work at the White House, but retained his half-ownership. Roosevelt was elected a director of Boston Metropolitan Buildings, Inc. in 1933. He also served briefly as president of the National Grain Yeast Corporation from May to November 1935.