Background
Sinclair Weeks was born in West Newton, Massachussets, son of former U. S. Senator and Secretary of War John Wingate Weeks, a founder of the brokerage firm of Hornblower and Weeks, and Martha Aroline Sinclair.
Sinclair Weeks was born in West Newton, Massachussets, son of former U. S. Senator and Secretary of War John Wingate Weeks, a founder of the brokerage firm of Hornblower and Weeks, and Martha Aroline Sinclair.
He attended the Newton public schools and graduated from Newton High School in 1910 and from Harvard College in 1914.
Following graduation, Weeks became a messenger for the First National Bank of Boston. His banking career was interrupted in 1916 by military service in the Massachusetts National Guard on the Mexican border and in 1917 in France during World War I, which he entered as a lieutenant in the 1016t Field Artillery, Twenty-sixth (Yankee) Division, Army Expeditionary Force. He left with the rank of captain. Weeks returned to the First National Bank in 1919 and remained there until 1923, at which time he was assistant cashier in charge of the foreign business of the bank. In 1923, Weeks left banking to work for his father-in-law, William B. H. Dowse, in two metal manufacturing businesses, Reed and Barton Corporation, silversmiths, in Taunton, Massachussets, and United Fastener Corporation, which made clothing fasteners and small metal stampings largely for the automotive and radio industries. He became vice president of Reed and Barton in 1928, and, after helping to arrange a merger with United Fastener's chief competitor, was made a director of the new United-Carr Fastener Corporation in 1929. He was chosen board chairman in 1942. Weeks was elected president and board chairman of Reed and Barton in 1945. In 1938 and 1939 he was regional vice-president of the Associated Industries of Massachusetts. In the 1920's and 1930's Weeks was active in Republican party politics on the state and national levels. The only elective offices he held were alderman of his home city of Newton (1923 - 1930) and mayor of Newton (1930 - 1936). He prided himself on bringing business principles to the running of the city. Weeks ran for the U. S. Senate in 1936 but lost to Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. Soon after, he became chairman of the Republican State Committee and subsequently chairman of the Republican state finance committee and eastern treasurer of the Republican National Committee. In 1940, Weeks was chairman of the executive committee of the Republican National Committee and from 1941 to 1944 he was treasurer of the national committee. He was extremely active in the presidential campaigns of Wendell L. Willkie and Governor Thomas E. Dewey. When Lodge resigned his seat in the United States Senate in 1944 to go on active duty with the United States Army, Weeks was appointed by Governor Leverett Saltonstall, a Harvard classmate, to fill out Lodge's term. He did not run for election at the end of that year, and the seat was won by Saltonstall, who took his place in the Senate in 1945. As chairman of the finance committee of the Republican National Committee (1950 - 1952), Weeks was the first member of the committee to voice support for Dwight D. Eisenhower for president and to ask that Senator Robert Taft of Ohio, the leading contender for the nomination, stand aside. He played a major role in Eisenhower's election, and John Harriman of the Boston Globe referred to him as a "political fund-raiser extraordinary. " Although Eisenhower had hoped that Weeks would agree to head the Republican National Committee and despite his concern that Weeks was "so completely conservative, " in 1953 he finally gave Weeks the job he preferred: secretary of commerce.
He married Beatrice Dowse of Boston in 1915; they had six children.