Hugh Rodham, Sr.

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Hugh Ellsworth Rodham (born April 2, 1911 in Scranton, Pennsylvania, died April 7, 1993 in Little Rock, Arkansas) was Hillary Rodham Clinton’s father.

Born to English immigrant parents in Pennsylvania, Hugh Rodham sought a better life than toiling in the Scranton coal mines, and attended Pennsylvania State University on a football scholarship, graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree from the College of Education in 1935. While at Penn State he joined the Delta Upsilon Fraternity. He then began what was to prove to be a very successful career in the textile supply industry.

He married Dorothy Emma Howell, and they had three children: Hillary, Hugh, and Tony. Raising his children in the affluent Chicago suburb of Park Ridge, Illinois, Rodham was a staunch supporter of Barry Goldwater’s 1964 presidential campaign and remained a committed Republican until his death in 1993.

Even after his daughter married Democrat Bill Clinton, he (according to Bill Clinton) "never gave up hope that his son-in-law would join him in the Republican Party and support a cut in the capital gains tax."