Charles Poletti

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62nd Lieutenant Governor of New York
Charles Poletti
50th Governor of New York
In office 1942 – 1942
Lieutenant(s)	None
Preceded by	Herbert H. Lehman
Succeeded by	Thomas E. Dewey
In office 1939 – 1942
Preceded by	M. William Bray
Succeeded by	Thomas W. Wallace (1943)

Born	July 2, 1903
Died	August 08, 2002 (aged 99) Elizabethtown, New York
Political party	Democratic

Charles Poletti (July 2, 1903 – August 8, 2002) was the governor of New York in 1942. He had previously served as the lieutenant governor. He was the first American of Italian ancestry to serve as a governor. At the close of World War II Poletti served as a U.S. Army civil affairs officer in Italy, rising to the rank of Colonel. The position required that he oversee the civil affairs of a large section of post-war Italy. Poletti himself said that the Army selected him because, aside from his experience in state politics, the population would be more likely to respect someone of Italian ancestry.

He served 29 days as Governor of New York, following the resignation of Herbert Lehman. He had unsuccessfully sought reelection as lieutenant governor earlier in 1942.

Poletti was a lawyer for a state commission that recommended the creation of a statewide New York State Power Authority and worked in drafting the 1931 legislation which met that objective; later he became a trustee of the Power Authority, serving from 1955 to 1960, the crucial period in which the St. Lawrence Project was built and the Authority’s Niagara Project largely completed. Besides serving as Governor and Lieutenant Governor, and practicing as an attorney and a justice of the New York State Supreme Court (note: this is a trial-level court, not the state's high court), Poletti had a role as a labor arbitrator and was the official responsible for foreign exhibits at Robert Moses' 1964 New York World's Fair.

The Charles Poletti Power Project (renamed in 1982 to honor him) is located in Astoria, Queens, across the East River from Manhattan in New York City.

Poletti died at the age of 99 in 2002; at the time of his death, he was the eldest living U.S. governor. Under protocol terms in New York State regarding the death of a former governor, flags flew at half staff for 31 days after his death, or two days longer than his governorship. He was interred at Riverside Cemetery in Elizabethtown, New York.

[edit] External links

Poletti papers at Columbia University

Preceded by M. William Bray	Lieutenant Governor of New York 1939-1942	Succeeded by Thomas W. Wallace
Preceded by Herbert H. Lehman	Governor of New York 1942	Succeeded by Thomas E. Dewey
Preceded by Harold E. Stassen	Earliest Serving United States Governor 2001–2002	Succeeded by J. Strom Thurmond