Daniel Calhoun Roper

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Daniel Calhoun Roper
Daniel Calhoun Roper

Daniel Calhoun Roper (April 1, 1867April 11, 1943) was a U.S. administrator, particularly under President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, born in Marlboro County, South Carolina. His father, John Wesley Roper, was a leader of the Scotch Boys of the Confederate Army.

Daniel Calhoun Roper graduated from Trinity College in 1888, which would later be renamed Duke University, and received his bachelor of laws from National University in 1901.

He served in the South Carolina House of Representatives from 1892 to 1894. From 1893 to 1897 he was a clerk for the U.S. Senate Committee on Interstate Commerce, and worked for the Census Bureau from 1900 to 1910. He then served from 1911 to 1913 as the clerk of the Committee on Ways and Means in the U.S. House of Representatives.

From 1913 to 1916, he served as first assistant postmaster general, and was chairman of President Wilson's reelection campaign in 1916. He was the chairman of the 1917 U.S. Tariff Commission and served as Commissioner of Internal Revenue from 1917 to 1920. He served as the Secretary of Commerce between 1933 and 1938, and as Ambassador to Canada in 1939.

Roper's Letter of Credence was accepted personally by George VI, King of Canada, at La Citadelle in Quebec City, on May 17, 1939. It was the King's first official duty as King of Canada on Canadian soil.[1]

He published his autobiography entitled Fifty Years of Public Life in 1941 (Duke University Press). He died in 1943 in Washington, D.C..

Preceded by
Roy D. Chapin
United States Secretary of Commerce
March 4, 1933 - December 23, 1938
Succeeded by
Harry Hopkins
Preceded by
Norman Armour
U.S. Ambassador to Canada
1939
Succeeded by
James H.R. Cromwell
United States Secretaries of Commerce Seal of the United States Department of Commerce
Secretaries of Commerce & Labor: CortelyouMetcalfStrausNagel

Secretaries of Commerce: RedfieldAlexanderHooverWhitingLamontChapinRoperHopkinsJonesWallaceHarrimanSawyerWeeksStraussMuellerHodgesConnorTrowbridgeSmithStansPetersonDentMortonRichardsonKrepsKlutznickBaldrigeVerityMosbacherFranklinBrownKantorDaleyMinetaEvansGutierrez