Sam Shapiro
Shapiro in 1968
34thGovernor of Illinois
In office May 21, 1968 – January 13, 1969
Lieutenant	Vacant
Preceded by	Otto Kerner Jr.
Succeeded by	Richard B. Ogilvie
38thLieutenant Governor of Illinois
In office January 9, 1961 – May 21, 1968
Governor	Otto Kerner Jr.
Preceded by	John William Chapman
Succeeded by	Paul Simon(1969)
Personal details
Born	Israel Shapiro (1907-04-25)April 25, 1907 Estonia,Russia (nowEstonia)
Died	March 16, 1987(1987-03-16) (aged 79) Kankakee, Illinois,U.S.
Political party	Democratic
Education	University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (LLB)

Samuel Harvey Shapiro (bornIsrael Shapiro; April 25, 1907 – March 16, 1987) was an American politician, the 34thgovernor of Illinois, serving from 1968 to 1969. He was a member of theDemocratic Party.

Born in 1907 in theGovernorate of Estonia of theRussian Empire, he emigrated to theUnited States at an early age.^[1] He graduated from theUniversity of Illinois College of Law in 1929.^[1] As a lawyer, Shapiro practiced inKankakee, Illinois. Turning to public service, he was electedstate's attorney (county prosecutor) ofKankakee County in 1936. From 1947–1961 he served in the Illinois State House of Representatives, where he took a special interest in mental health issues.^[2]

Shapiro was elected the38thLieutenant Governor of Illinois in 1960 and again in 1964, and took office as governor when the previous governorOtto Kerner, Jr. resigned to accept appointment to the federalappellate court. Shapiro thus became the secondJewish governor of Illinois (Henry Horner being the first). Illinois thereby became the first state to have had two Jewish governors;New York,Oregon,Pennsylvania andRhode Island have each since electedat least a second governor of the faith.

Upon becoming governor, Shapiro ran at once for a full term of his own but was narrowly defeated byRepublicanRichard B. Ogilvie in the 1968 election. He then returned to private life, although he was called upon several times to serve on special commissions, the most significant of which was a commission to redraw state electoral boundaries in 1981.

Shapiro was an alumnus of theAlpha Epsilon Pi fraternity. From 1984 until his death, he led the effort to establish a permanent headquarters for the fraternity's national offices. As a result, Alpha Epsilon Pi's International Headquarters is dedicated in his honor.

Shapiro continued to work as an attorney; his death was discovered when he failed to appear in court for a client and police were sent to his home inKankakee to investigate. He is buried inJewish Waldheim Cemetery inForest Park, Illinois. The state renamed theKankakee Mental Health Center in his honor.

• List of U.S. state governors born outside the United States

• Samuel Shapiro atFind a Grave

• 1907 births
• 1987 deaths
• 20th-century American Jews
• 20th-century Illinois politicians
• 20th-century Estonian Jews
• 20th-century Estonian politicians
• American people of Estonian-Jewish descent
• Burials in Forest Park, Illinois
• Democratic Party governors of Illinois
• District attorneys in Illinois
• Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the United States
• Estonian emigrants to the United States
• Jewish American state governors of the United States
• Lieutenant governors of Illinois
• People from Kankakee, Illinois
• University of Illinois College of Law alumni

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