Bowles, Chester Bliss

(1901-1986)

   Born in Springfield, Massachusetts, Chester Bowles attended Choate Rosemary Hall School in Connecticut and then went to Yale University, where he graduated with a B.S. in science in 1924. After working as a journalist, he became an advertising copywriter, and in 1929 he established his own advertising agency with William Burnett Benton. He sold his share in 1941 and became director of the Connecticut Office of Price Administration (OPA) in 1942. He was appointed director of the national OPA in 1943 and held the position until 1946, when he was appointed director of the Office of Economic Stabilization. He also attended the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization conference in Paris as one of the U.S. delegates and served briefly as a special adviser in the United Nations. In 1948, Bowles was elected governor of Connecticut, but his liberal policies (including desegregating the state national guard) cost him reelection in 1950.

   From 1951 until 1953, Bowles was U.S. ambassador to India. He was elected for one term to the House of Representatives in 1958 and failed on several attempts to become a senator for Connecticut. John F. Kennedy appointed him as a foreign policy adviser, and in 1961 he became undersecretary of state but lost the position because of his opposition to the Bay of Pigs attack on Cuba. After serving as an ambassador at large, he was again appointed ambassador to India in 1963, a position he held until 1968. Bowles was the author of several books dealing with different aspects of his career, among them The Conscience of a Liberal (1962) and Promises to Keep: My Public Life (1971).