Background
William Arthur was born on May 6, 1897 in Hartford, Connecticut, United States, the son of Thomas M. Purtell and Nora O'Connor, tobacco workers in the Connecticut River Valley.
manufacturer politician statesman
William Arthur was born on May 6, 1897 in Hartford, Connecticut, United States, the son of Thomas M. Purtell and Nora O'Connor, tobacco workers in the Connecticut River Valley.
William Arthur Purtell left school at age fifteen. Purtell was never ashamed that he had to leave high school to support his family.
Purtell became a newsboy at age eight, a grocery errand boy at age ten, and at age thirteen he added the job of janitor of an apartment house. At age of fifteen he worked fulltime as a water boy on a construction site. He was also a file clerk in an insurance office and a car checker in the New Haven Railroad freight yards.
Purtell enlisted in the United States Army during World War I, served overseas in the radio section of the Signal Corps (1918 - 1919), and was discharged as a corporal. After his marriage, Purtell joined a Hartford manufacturing concern as a salesman.
In 1929, on the proverbial shoestring, he and a few friends organized the Holo-Krome Screw Corporation, using several of Purtell's inventions to produce high-quality screws. It was one of the first nonunion Connecticut firms to have an employee profit-sharing program and to pay wages comparable with those of similar, unionized industries in the area. Just before World War II, Purtell was named president, treasurer, and general manager of Billings and Spencer, an almost bankrupt Hartford firm that manufactured forging machinery and tools; he was chairman of the board from 1944 to 1947. After reorganizing it, assuring employees that their jobs were secure, and making the company an important contributor to the war effort, he left in 1947.
He remained president of Holo-Krome until 1952. During these years, Purtell was also involved with Sparmal Engineering Corporation (1938 - 1952), Colts Manufacturing Company, Hartford Connecticut Trust Company, Veeder-Root, Hartford Gas Company, and National Fire Insurance Company.
After World War I he was prominent in the American Legion. He was director of the Hartford Red Cross during World War II, a former governor of Hillyer College (now the University of Hartford), a member of the state interracial commission, and director of the Connecticut State Prison, and a member of the Board of Parole. Purtell was also president of both the Manufacturers Association of Hartford County and the Manufacturers Association of Connecticut, and a director of the United States Chamber of Commerce.
In 1950 the politically inexperienced Purtell was an unsuccessful candidate for the Republican gubernatorial nomination against John Davis Lodge. Nevertheless, on May 27, 1952, at the Republican state convention, he was nominated to oppose Senator William Benton. On August 29, 1952, Purtell was appointed by Governor Lodge to fill the vacant Senate seat of the recently deceased Brien McMahon, a Democrat, until a successor could be elected in November. Purtell was in the unusual position of filling one Senate seat while running for the other, but because his Senate service could not be continuous, he gained no seniority by the appointment. Purtell accepted the appointment in order to change the things he was always complaining about. When first nominated, Purtell announced that he would beat Benton without help but later appeared with McCarthy in the state. Purtell achieved a surprising triumph and supported McCarthy a few years later by opposing a resolution censuring the Wisconsin Republican for "failure to cooperate" with a Senate subcommittee.
After Eisenhower's nomination, Purtell's Senate campaign was pitched to the theme "Give Ike a Republican Senate". After Purtell defeated Benton by 90, 000 votes, he resigned all business positions and directorships. In his one Senate term, Purtell was a member of the Interstate and Foreign Commerce, Labor and Public Welfare, and Post Office and Civil Service committees, and several subcommittees concerned with juvenile delinquency, welfare and pension plan legislation, surface transportation, and health.
He retired to West Hartford and resumed his manufacturing interests. In Washington, Purtell had lived quietly, shunning the limelight as much as possible. He died in West Hartford.
William Arthur Purtell was one of the first Connecticut Republicans to support Dwight D. Eisenhower's run for the presidency. For a long time he remained a supporter of Eisenhower's policies.
In foreign policy, Purtell opposed pressing France to give full self-government in its former colony of Indochina, the Bricker amendment (limiting presidential treaty-making powers), and giving authority to Congress to veto presidential trade agreements. He favored permitting members of the armed forces serving abroad to be tried for off-duty offenses in foreign civil courts, penalizing foreign aid recipients trading with Communist China, passage of the "defend Formosa" resolution, and a three-year extension of the reciprocal trade program.
Purtell was a life member of the American Society of Tool and Manufacturing Engineers and the American Supply and Machinery Manufacturers Association.
Purtell had ready wit, remarkable memory, and forceful delivery.
During the war, Purtell became engaged to Katherine Cassidy, a nurse serving with the Allied Expeditionary Forces. They were married December 30, 1919, and had two children.