Irving M. Ives - Biographical Sketch, 1946

Biographical Sketch

Irving M. Ives

Republican Candidate for U.S. Senator

Bainbridge News & Republican, October 17, 1946

 

Irving M. Ives

 

Irving M. Ives, Republican candidate for U.S. Senator, veteran-businessman-legislator-educator, during 10 years as majority leader of the New York State Assembly, has gained wide renown as one of the ablest floor leaders and most capable debaters ever to serve in the Legislature.

 

As director of party strategy in legislative debate, Mr. Ives demonstrated oratorical brilliance and other abilities which won him the admiration of legislators and spectators.  For the last several years he had been in great demand as a speaker at Republican and non-partisan meetings throughout the state.

 

Mr. Ives is probably best known for three outstanding legislative achievements:  creation of the State Department of Commerce, enactment of the Ives-Quinn Law prohibiting discrimination in employment because of race, creed, color or national origin, and establishment of the New York State School of Industrial and Labor Relations, which he now heads.

 

Born in Bainbridge, Jan. 24, 1896, Mr. Ives enlisted in the Infantry shortly after the United States entered World War I and participated in the Meuse-Argonne and St. Mihiel offensives, after which he was in the Army of Occupation in Germany until the late summer of 1919.

 

Following the war, Mr. Ives resumed his education at Hamilton College, Clinton, where he won membership in Phi Beta Kappa and received his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1920.  Subsequently he was awarded the honorary degrees of Doctor of Humane Letters by Hobart College, Geneva, and Doctor of Laws by his alma mater.

 

For three years following his graduation, Mr Ives was with the Guaranty Trust Company of New York.  In 1923 he became affiliated with the Manufacturers Trust Company, in charge of new business in Upstate New York, at which time he moved to Norwich [Chenango Co., NY].  In 1930 he was elected to the Legislature to represent Chenango County and shortly thereafter he entered the general insurance business in Norwich.

 

Within five years after he became a member of the Assembly, Mr. Ives had so distinguished himself, particularly in debate, that he was chosen as minority Leader.  He became speaker of the Assembly in 1936 and the following year left the rostrum and returned to the floor to take over the duties of Majority Leader.

 

When the Legislature created the Joint Legislative Committee on Industrial and Labor Conditions in 1938, Mr. Ives was elected chairman. Through his work with this committee, he came to be recognized as one of the outstanding authorities in the nation on industrial and labor relations and conditions.

 

Legislation setting up the New York State Department of Commerce was a direct outgrowth of this committee which also was responsible for the publication in 1943 of the unique textbook, "The America Story of Industrial and Labor Relations," prepared under the direction of Mr. Ives.

 

When the New York State School of Industrial ad Labor Relations, first of its kind in the nation, was established by the Legislature upon recommendation of this committee in 1944, the Cornell University Board of Trustees instituted a wide search for a man to serve as dean of the school only to find the man best qualified for the job in the person of Mr. Ives.  Following his appointment as dean in 1945, Mr. Ives announced his retirement from the Legislature effective at the end of his present term.  Since being nominated as Republican candidate for U.S. Senator, he has been granted a leave of absence form the deanship.

 

In addition to  his aforementioned legislative duties, Mr. Ives served as chairman of the State Temporary Commission Against Discrimination during 1944-45 and as chairman of the Temporary State Commission on Agriculture during 1945-46.  He also was a member of the New York State War Council and was chairman of the council's Committee on Dispensations covering employment to aid the war effort.

 

A member of the Board of Trustees of Hamilton College and a former Cornell University trustee, Mr. Ives is a member of the American Legion, the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the National Grange and Theta Delta Chi fraternity.  He is a Presbyterian.

 

Mr. Ives married Miss Elizabeth Minette Skinner in 1920.  They have one son, George Skinner Ives, who was a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy in World War II and commanded an LST, seeing action in both the Atlantic and Pacific theaters of operation.