Theodore Joslin

Ted Joslin
Joslin (right) with President Hoover
2ndWhite House Press Secretary
In office March 16, 1931 – March 4, 1933
President	Herbert Hoover
Preceded by	George E. Akerson
Succeeded by	Stephen Early
White House Appointments Secretary
In office March 16, 1931 – March 4, 1933
President	Herbert Hoover
Preceded by	George E. Akerson
Succeeded by	Marvin H. McIntyre
Personal details
Born	Theodore Goldsmith Joslin (1890-02-28)February 28, 1890 Leominster,Massachusetts,U.S.
Died	April 12, 1944(1944-04-12)(aged 54) Wilmington,Delaware,U.S.
Political party	Republican

Theodore Goldsmith Joslin(February 28, 1890 – April 12, 1944) was the secondWhite House Press SecretaryunderPresidentHerbert Hooverfrom 1931 until 1933.

Background

Joslin was born inLeominster,Massachusetts,to Frederick A. and Hanna Hopgood Joslin. After graduating from high school, he took a job with the Boston bureau of theAssociated Press(AP), rising from office boy to correspondent. In 1913 he joined the staff of theBoston Evening Transcript.In 1916 theEvening Transcriptsent him to its Washington, D.C. bureau, and he became chief correspondent in 1924. From 1916 to 1931 he was also on the staff ofWorld’s Weekand contributed to other magazines. He married Rowena A. Hawes in 1913, and had two sons, Richard and Robert.

White House Press Secretary

In March 1931 Joslin was appointedpress secretaryto PresidentHerbert Hoover,replacingGeorge Akerson,who had taken the blame for the president's deteriorating relations with the Washingtonpress corps.Joslin held that post until Hoover left office in March 1933. After hisWhite Housetenure, he produced Washington reports for the statisticianRoger W. Babsonfrom 1933–1936. He then served as president ofThe News-JournalCompany ofWilmington, Delawarefrom 1936-1939. In 1939, he became director of public relations for theDuPont Company,holding that post until he died in his office of a heart attack.

During his tenure as presidential press secretary, Joslin struggled to improve Hoover's public image. Hoover's distaste for the press and personal publicity, the collapse of the national economy in theGreat Depression,and such public relations blunders as sending army troops on the Bonus Marchers in 1932, make is so Joslin did not accomplish this task. Joslin admired Hoover, and his diary recorded the president's conversations and other events inside the administration, as well as during Hoover's race for reelection, which he lost in a landslide toFranklin D. Roosevelt.

Later life and death

After Hoover left office, Joslin published an expurgated version of the diary asHoover Off the Record(1934). Much of what he omitted was later published by Timothy Walch and Dwight M. Miller inHerbert Hoover and Franklin D. Roosevelt: A Documentary History(1998). He died in 1944.

References

• Joslin’s obituaryappeared in theNew York Timeson April 13, 1944.
• Louis W. Liebovich,Bylines in Despair: Herbert Hoover, the Great Depression, and the U.S. News Media(1994).
• [Drew Pearson and Robert S. Allen]Washington Merry-Go-Round(1931).

External links

• "Theodore Joslin and banking crisis:".U.S. News & World Report.2006-07-16.Retrieved2008-08-10.
• Theodore JoslinatFind a Grave