Editing Sinclair Weeks

{{short description|American politician}}
{{redirect|Charles Weeks|the American architect, Charles Peter Weeks|Weeks and Day}}

{{Infobox officeholder
|name         = Sinclair Weeks
|image        = CharlesSinclairWeeks.jpg
|office       = 13th [[United States Secretary of Commerce]]
|president    = [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]]
|term_start   = January 21, 1953
|term_end     = November 10, 1958
|predecessor  = [[Charles W. Sawyer]]
|successor    = [[Lewis Strauss]] (acting)
|jr/sr1       = United States Senator
|state1       = [[Massachusetts]]
|appointer1   = [[Leverett Saltonstall]]
|term_start1  = February 8, 1944
|term_end1    = December 19, 1944
|predecessor1 = [[Henry Cabot Lodge Jr.]]
|successor1   = [[Leverett Saltonstall]]
|office2      = Chair of the [[Massachusetts Republican Party]]
|term_start2  = 1936
|term_end2    = 1938
|predecessor2 = Vernon Marr
|successor2   = [[Carroll Meins]]
|office3      = [[List of mayors of Newton, Massachusetts|Mayor of Newton]]
|term_start3  = 1930
|term_end3    = 1935
|predecessor3 = Edwin Childs
|successor3   = Edwin Childs
|birth_date   = {{birth date|1893|6|15}}
|birth_place  = [[Newton, Massachusetts|Newton]], [[Massachusetts]], [[United States|U.S.]]
|death_date   = {{death date and age|1972|2|7|1893|6|15}}
|death_place  = [[Concord, Massachusetts|Concord]], [[Massachusetts]], [[United States|U.S.]]
|party        = [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]]
|relatives    = [[John W. Weeks|John Weeks]] (Father)
|education    = [[Harvard University]] ([[Bachelor of Arts|BA]])
|allegiance   = {{flag|United States}}
|branch       = {{army|United States}}
|unit         = [[Army National Guard]]
|battles      = [[World War I]]
| nationality = [[Americans|American]]
|signature    = Sinclair Weeks signature.png
}}

'''Charles Sinclair Weeks''' (June 15, 1893{{spaced ndash}}February 7, 1972), better known as '''Sinclair Weeks''', was an American politician who served as a United States Senator from [[Massachusetts]] in 1944 and as [[United States Secretary of Commerce]] from 1953 until 1958, during President [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]]'s administration.

==Biography==
Born in [[West Newton, Massachusetts]], Weeks was the second child of [[John Wingate Weeks]], who was a United States congressman and Secretary of War, and Martha Aroline Sinclair.  His older sister was Katherine Weeks, wife of John Washington Davidge. Weeks graduated from [[Harvard College]], served on the [[U.S.-Mexico border]] with the [[United States National Guard|U.S. National Guard]] in 1916, and served in [[World War I]].  He was a businessman in various industries, including the [[First National Bank of Boston]], the United Carr Fastener Corporation and as President of [[Reed & Barton]] of Taunton Massachusetts.

He served as [[mayor]] of [[Newton, Massachusetts]] from 1930 to 1935. He was a [[United States senator]] from [[Massachusetts]] from February 8, 1944, when he was appointed by Governor [[Leverett Saltonstall]] following the resignation of [[Henry Cabot Lodge Jr.|Henry C. Lodge Jr.]], who went to serve in [[World War II]], until December 19, 1944, when a new senator was elected. Weeks did not run in that election. Weeks was a member of the [[Republican Party (United States)|United States Republican Party]] and served as the member of a [[Republican National Committee]] from 1941 to 1953. He was the treasurer of the party from 1940 to 1944.  Weeks was the president of the [[American Enterprise Institute|American Enterprise Association]] from 1946 to 1950.

President Dwight Eisenhower appointed him the [[United States Secretary of Commerce]] from January 21, 1953, until November 10, 1958. Among the signature initiatives of the Eisenhower administration with which Weeks was involved was the Interstate Highway system of 1956. As Secretary of Commerce, he was charged with securing funding for the project.

Weeks married the former Beatrice Lee Dowse of Newton MA on December 4, 1915. She was the daughter of William Bradford Homer Dowse, Esq., President of Reed & Barton Silversmiths and granddaughter of Henry Gooding Reed, co-founder of Reed & Barton Silversmiths (1824 - 2015), They had three sons and three daughters, Frances Lee Weeks Hallowell Lawrence, John Wingate Weeks III, Martha Sinclair Weeks Sherrill, Sinclair Weeks Jr, William D. Weeks and Beatrice Weeks Bast.  His wife died July 10, 1945, in Lancaster NH. Weeks married Jane Tompkins Rankin of Nashville TN on January 3, 1948. In 1968 he married Alice Requa Palmer Low of San Francisco, CA - widow of Admiral [[Francis S. Low]]. He had no children by his second or third wives.

In 1941, he and his sister Katherine Weeks Davidge had given their father's summer estate on Mt. Prospect in Lancaster to the State of New Hampshire to be a State Park. They intended the historic Arts & Crafts-style 1913 Lodge and 1912 Observation Tower on the summit to educate the public about sustainable forestry management. Today [[Weeks State Park]], with its historic 1910 NH Scenic Byway road to the top, Lodge and Tower, attracts thousands of visitors annually to enjoy a panoramic 360-degree view of the White Mountains of New Hampshire and the Green Mountains of Vermont.

Due to the illness of his second wife, in 1958 Weeks retired to his farm in [[Lancaster, New Hampshire]].

In the 1960s, Weeks worked with his friend and Republican colleague New Hampshire Governor [[Sherman Adams]] and others to ensure that Interstate 93 did not destroy the fragile environment of Franconia Notch State Park through which the Interstate was intended to run. As a result, Interstate 93 is transformed into the unique eight-mile long scenic Franconia Notch State Parkway before reverting to a major US Interstate. He died on February 7, 1972, at age 78, in [[Concord, Massachusetts]].  He is buried in Summer Street Cemetery in [[Lancaster, New Hampshire]].

==External links==
{{Portal|Biography}}
{{CongBio|W000248}}
*{{Find a Grave|name=Sinclair Weeks|8066785}}
*[http://eisenhower.archives.gov/Research/Oral_Histories/Oral_Histories.html Finding aid for the Sinclair Weeks Oral History, Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library] Papers of Sinclair Weeks
*[https://archives-manuscripts.dartmouth.edu/repositories/2/resources/981 The Papers of Sinclair Weeks] at Dartmouth College Library

{{s-start}}
{{s-ppo}}
{{s-bef|before=Vernon Marr}}
{{s-ttl|title=Chair of the [[Massachusetts Republican Party]]|years=1936–1938}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Carroll Meins]]}}
|-
{{s-par|us-sen}}
{{s-bef|before=[[Henry Cabot Lodge Jr.]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[List of United States Senators from Massachusetts|U.S. Senator (Class 2) from Massachusetts]]|years=1944|alongside=[[David I. Walsh]]}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Leverett Saltonstall]]}}
|-
{{s-npo}}
{{s-bef|before=John O'Leary}}
{{s-ttl|title=President of the [[American Enterprise Association]]|years=1946–1950}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Lewis H. Brown]]}}
|-
{{s-off}}
{{s-bef|before=[[Charles W. Sawyer]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[United States Secretary of Commerce]]|years=1953–1958}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Lewis Strauss]]}}
{{s-end}}

{{USSenMA}}
{{USSecCommerce}}
{{Eisenhower cabinet}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Weeks, Sinclair}}
[[Category:1893 births]]
[[Category:1972 deaths]]
[[Category:Harvard University alumni]]
[[Category:Mayors of Newton, Massachusetts]]
[[Category:United States secretaries of commerce]]
[[Category:American Enterprise Institute]]
[[Category:Republican Party United States senators from Massachusetts]]
[[Category:Massachusetts Republican Party chairs]]
[[Category:Military personnel from Massachusetts]]
[[Category:Eisenhower administration cabinet members]]
[[Category:People from Lancaster, New Hampshire]]
[[Category:20th-century United States senators]]