Vincent F. Harrington

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Vincent Francis Harrington (May 16, 1903 - November 29, 1943) was a Democratic U.S. Representative from Iowa. Harrington enlisted in the Air Corps after the Pearl Harbor attack, resigned from Congress when President Roosevelt disallowed Congressmen from holding both offices, and died of natural causes while in active service in England. A Liberty Ship was named in his honor.

Born in Sioux City, Iowa to Thomas F. and Maria Harrington, Vincent Harrington attended Cathedral Grammar School in Sioux City, Iowa.[1] He then attended Trinity College Academy, a school in Sioux City built on land purchased from Harrington's parents by the Order of St. Francis.[2] He attended University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana, where he played football for Knute Rockne,[3] as a second-stringer on the legendary "Four Horsemen" team that dominated all opponents in the 1924 season.[4] After graduating from Notre Dame in 1925, he served on as an instructor and athletic director at Columbia University in Portland, Oregon from 1926 to 1927, where he taught economics and history.[1] He then returned to Sioux City, where he worked with his father at Continental Mortgage Company, serving as treasurer and assistant manager, and later as vice president and general manager.[1][3]

Harrington served as member of the Iowa Senate from 1933 to 1937. In 1936, he was nominated as a candidate for Lieutenant Governor of Iowa, but withdrew to accept the Democratic nomination for the U.S. House of Representatives for Iowa's 9th congressional district.

Harrington was elected to the U.S. House in 1936, and re-elected in 1938 and 1940. In the 1940 race, he promised that, if he would ever vote for war, he would himself go to war.[5] Thus, after he voted to declare war following the Pearl Harbor attack, in May 1942 he enlisted in the United States Army Air Corps, where he was commissioned as a captain, and took a leave of absence from Congress while becoming a candidate for re-election.[6] He declared that "the decision as to my congressional status after Jan. 3, 1943 is entirely up to the people of the district."[6]

However, before the 1942 general election, President Franklin Roosevelt issued an order as commander-in-chief that forced Congressmen serving in the military to resign one position or another.[7] To abide by his promise to go to war, Harrington resigned from Congress on September 5, 1942.[5] Thus, voters in his district were required to cast two votes in the 1942 general election - one to decide who would serve out the final two months of Harrington's term in the Seventh-seventh Congress, and another for a term in the next Congress. Republican Harry E. Narey was elected to serve out Harrington's term in Iowa's 9th congressional district, while Republican Charles B. Hoeven was elected to the seat Harrington had sought as his next term, in Iowa's 8th congressional district.

On November 29, 1943, in while serving in the Air Corps as a security control officer in Rutland, England, Harrington suffered a fatal heart attack.[3] He was interred in Cambridge American Cemetery, in Cambridge, England.

Harrington was married to Katherine O'Connor Harrington of Homer, Nebraska. Mr. and Mrs. Harrington were the parents of two daughters, Catherine Tim and Patricia Ann Harrington.[1]

In July 1944, Mrs. Harrington christened the SS Vincent Harrington, a Liberty Ship named in honor of her husband.[8]

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c d Iowa Official Register, Biography of members of the Iowa State Senate, 1933-34.
  2. ^ A Brief History of Trinity College (1913-1947).
  3. ^ a b c "Harrington Death due to Heart Attack," Council Bluffs Nonpariel, 1943-12-10, at 13.
  4. ^ "Twenty-Three Notre Dame Players to Graduate," Ogden Standard-Examiner, 1925-01-07, at 9.
  5. ^ a b "Harrington Resigns from Congress," Sioux Center News, 1942-09-10, at 1.
  6. ^ a b "Harrington an Army Captain," Hawarden Independent, 1942-05-14, at 1.
  7. ^ "For Services Rendered," Time Magazine, 1942-07-22.
  8. ^ "SS Harrington Launched Saturday," Council Bluffs Nonpareil, 1944-07-22, at 1.