Thomas H. Eliot
Vice Chair of theUnited States Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations
In office April 30, 1964[1] – April 29, 1966[1]
Appointed by	Lyndon Johnson
Preceded by	Don Hummel[2]
Succeeded by	Price Daniel[3]
Executive Director of the Special Commission on the Structure of the State Government of Massachusetts
In office 1950[4]–1952[4]
Governor	Paul A. Dever
Preceded by	position established[4]
Succeeded by	William A. Waldron[4]
Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromMassachusetts's9th district
In office January 3, 1941 – January 3, 1943
Preceded by	Robert Luce
Succeeded by	Charles L. Gifford
General Counsel of theSocial Security Board
In office 1935[5]–1937[5]
Preceded by	position established
Succeeded by	Jack B. Tate[5]
Personal details
Born	Thomas Hopkinson Eliot June 14, 1907 Cambridge, Massachusetts
Died	October 14, 1991(1991-10-14) (aged 84) Cambridge, Massachusetts
Resting place	Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Political party	Democratic
Spouse	Lois Jameson
Children	2
Education	Harvard University (AB, LLB)

Thomas Hopkinson Eliot (June 14, 1907 – October 14, 1991)^[6] was an American lawyer, politician, and academic who served as chancellor ofWashington University in St. Louis and as a congressman in theUnited States House of Representatives fromMassachusetts.^[7]

Eliot was born inCambridge, Massachusetts into the prominentEliot family to Frances Hopkinson Eliot andSamuel A. Eliot II, a prominentUnitarian minister and member of the prominentEliot family. At the time of Thomas' birth, his father was president of theAmerican Unitarian Association and his grandfather,Charles W. Eliot, had been president ofHarvard University for nearly four decades.

He attendedBrowne & Nichols School in Cambridge, graduated fromHarvard University in 1928 and was a student atEmmanuel College inCambridge University, from 1928 to 1929. He graduated fromHarvard Law School in 1932 and was admitted to the bar in 1933, commencing practice inBuffalo, New York.

Eliot served as assistant solicitor in theUnited States Department of Labor from 1933 to 1935 and as general counsel for the Social Security Board from 1935 to 1937. He was a lecturer on government atHarvard University from 1937 to 1938, and regional director of the Wage and Hour Division in the Department of Labor from 1939 to 1940.^[8]

In 1938 Eliot, aDemocrat, ran for election to the Seventy-sixth Congress, losing toRepublicanRobert Luce. Eliot defeated Luce in a rematch in 1940, winning election to the Seventy-seventh Congress (January 3, 1941 – January 3, 1943). He was an unsuccessful candidate for renomination in 1942 to the Seventy-eighth Congress and for nomination in 1944 to the Seventy-ninth Congress; both times his successful opponent was the colorful longtime Boston politicianJames M. Curley.

Eliot saw war service in 1943 as director of the British Division, Office of War Information, London, England, and special assistant to the United States Ambassador. From 1943 to 1944 he was chairman of the appeals committee of theNational War Labor Board. He served with theOffice of Strategic Services in 1944, and from November 1944 to November 1945 was chief counsel of the Division of Power, U.S. Department of the Interior. In addition, Eliot served asNew England chairman of theUnited Negro College Fund.^[9]

After the war, Eliot engaged in the practice of law inBoston from 1945 to 1950, before returning to university life. From 1950 to 1952 he served as the executive director of the Massachusetts Special Commission on the Structure of the State Government.^[4] In 1952 he was appointed professor of political science atWashington University in St. Louis, where he wroteGoverning America; the Politics of a Free People: National, State, and Local Government, andAmerican Government: Problems and Readings in Political Analysis. He was a professor of constitutional law from 1958 to 1961. In 1961 he moved to the Washington University College of Liberal Arts, serving as dean from 1961 to 1962, and chancellor from 1962 to 1971. He also served as vice chairman of the United StatesCommission on Intergovernmental Relations from 1964 to 1966 and as president of theSalzburg Global Seminar from 1971 to 1977; and as a teacher atBuckingham, Browne & Nichols School in Cambridge, Massachusetts (his high school alma mater, which had merged with another school), from 1977 to 1985.

He married Lois Jameson and they had two children.^[10]Eliot was a resident of Cambridge until his death there in 1991.^[11] He was interred atMount Auburn Cemetery inCambridge, Massachusetts.^[7]

• Eliot, Thomas H.Recollections of the New Deal: When the People Mattered. Edited with an introduction byJohn Kenneth Galbraith. Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1992;
• Eliot, Thomas H.Public and Personal. Edited by Frank O'Brien. St. Louis: Washington University Press, 1971.

• United States Congress."Thomas H. Eliot (id: E000107)".Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
• Biographical entry at Washington University in St. Louis
• Biographical entry at theSocial Security Administration
• Salzburg Global Seminar

• 1907 births
• 1991 deaths
• American Unitarians
• Eliot family (United States)
• Harvard Law School alumni
• Chancellors of Washington University in St. Louis
• Washington University in St. Louis faculty
• Burials at Mount Auburn Cemetery
• Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Massachusetts
• Buckingham Browne & Nichols School alumni
• Lyndon B. Johnson administration personnel
• 20th-century American lawyers
• Lawyers from Buffalo, New York
• Lawyers from St. Louis
• Lawyers from Boston
• Franklin D. Roosevelt administration personnel
• Truman administration personnel
• Alumni of the University of Cambridge
• Harvard College alumni
• 20th-century United States representatives
• Delta Upsilon members

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• Use mdy dates from May 2022