Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt III (June 14, 1914 – May 2, 2001) was the grandson of United States President Theodore Roosevelt and the son of politician and World War II military leader Brig. Gen. Theodore Roosevelt II.
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Theodore Roosevelt, III, was born in New York City on June 14, 1914, the son of Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. and Eleanore Butler Alexander Roosevelt, and a grandson of 26th US President, Theodore Roosevelt and Edith Roosevelt. He was the second and the last surviving of four children born to Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. and Eleanor Butler, Grace Green Roosevelt, who married William McMillan, Ted, Cornelius Van Schaack Roosevelt and Quentin Roosevelt, II.
Following the Roosevelt family tradition, Theodore Roosevelt, III went to Groton and graduated from Harvard in 1936, where he was a member of the Owl Club. Roosevelt worked for the DuPont company from 1936 to 1941.
Following the Roosevelt tradition of military service during times of national emergency, during World War II, Roosevelt was a Navy flier, serving as a flag lieutenant in the Pacific. For his service as a naval aviator, Ted III was awarded the Air Medal and left the Navy a lieutenant commander. His father, Ted Jr, also volunteered for service, participated in the Allied invasion of North Africa and earned the Medal of Honor leading soldiers on the beach on D-Day in France dying shortly afterward of a heart attack.
Upon his return from the Pacific Theatre, Ted III joined the Philadelphia brokerage firm of Montgomery, Scott, becoming a partner in 1952. Appointed by Governor James Duff, Ted served as Secretary of Commerce of Pennsylvania from 1949 to 1951. For many years he was president of the Competitive Enterprise System, Inc., a nonprofit group that promoted free markets in the United States. Roosevelt was a trustee of the Theodore Roosevelt Association (TRA) for many years and a generous supporter of the organization. In recent years, he attended TRA Police Awards ceremonies in Boston and Philadelphia as well as TRA annual meetings in Boston and Norfolk, VA. He was an honorary plankowner in the USS Theodore Roosevelt, and a strong supporter of the efforts to preserve the Pine Knot site in Virginia, his grandparents' presidential retreat.
Roosevelt's wife was the former Anne Mason Babcock (1914 – January 29, 2001). They had one son, Theodore Roosevelt IV. Theodore Roosevelt III died on May 2, 2001.[1] He and his wife are buried near Somesville, Maine.