John Davis Lodge Collection

Former Hollywood actor (1933-1942) who worked with Marlene Dietrich ("Scarlet Empress") and Shirley Temple, John Davis Lodge was born 20 October 1903, in Washington, D.C.. Lodge attended the Evans School (Mesa, AZ), the Middlesex School (Concord, MA), and Ecole de Droit (Paris, France). He graduated from Harvard University (1925) and from the Harvard Law School (1929) and was admitted to the New York bar in 1932. Lodge served with the United States Navy as a lieutenant and lieutenant commander (August 1942 - January 1946) and was a liaison officer between the French and American fleets. He was decorated with the rank of Chevalier in the French Legion of Honor and with the Croix de Guerre with palm by General de Gaulle. Lodge was elected as a Republican to the Eightieth and Eighty-first Congresses (3 January 1947 - 3 January 1951) but was not a candidate for renomination in 1950. Lodge was Governor of Connecticut from January 1951 to January 1955 and ran unsuccessfully for reelection as Governor in 1954.

Lodge served as United States Ambassador to Spain from January 1955 until January 1961 and was associated with Junior Achievement, Inc. (1963-1964), Committee Foreign Policy Research Institute, University of Pennsylvania (chariman, 1964-1969), delegate and assistant floor leader, Connecticut Constitutional Convention (1965), United States Ambassador to Argentina (1969-1974) and Ambassador to Switzerland (1983). The brother of Senator Henry Cabot Lodge and grandson of Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, Sr., Lodge was married to Francesca Braggiotti and the father of two daughters. He received an honorary doctorate from Fairfield University in 1966. A resident of Westport, Connecticut, John D. Lodge died 29 October 1985.