William Benton (senator)

William Burnett Benton ( born April 1, 1900 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, † March 18, 1973 in New York City ) was an American politician (Democratic Party), who represented the state of Connecticut in the U.S. Senate.

After training at a military academy in Faribault and the Carlton College in Northfield to Benton enrolled in 1918 at Yale University, where he graduated in 1921. Until 1929 he worked in the result for an advertising agency in New York, before he made ​​his own and his partner Chester Bowles in the agency Benton & Bowles. In 1932 he moved to Norwalk in Connecticut. From 1937 to 1945, Benton Vice President of the University of Chicago.

On 31 August 1945, he took office as Secretary of State for Public Affairs ( Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs ) in the U.S. Department of State, a position he held until September 30, 1947. During this time he was involved in the organizational structure of the UN.

1949 Benton became the provisional successor to the retiring U.S. Senator from Connecticut, Raymond E. Baldwin, appointed. The term of office began on December 17, 1949; in the by-election on 7 November 1950, he sat down finally to Republican Prescott Bush, father of the late U.S. president George Bush, by. During his time in the Senate, which lasted until January 3, 1953, he introduced a resolution, which was for the purpose of Joseph McCarthy excluded from the Senate. The re- election to his Senate seat lost William Benton in 1952. Later he was still U.S. ambassador to UNESCO in Paris from 1963 until 1968.

A large part of his life Benton with the work of the Encyclopædia Britannica, the Chairman of the Board and editor, he was from 1943 until his death in 1973. In 1968, he called the Benton Foundation in, a non-profit organization whose main focus should be directed to make media content for educational purposes available. He was also a member and delegate to numerous international conferences and commissions.