Winant, John G.

Winant, John G. (Gilbert) (1889–1947) governor, government official; born in New York City. Member of a wealthy family, he became a history teacher at his former prep school, St. Paul's School, in Concord, N.H. (1911–17). As a moderate Republican, he also served in the New Hampshire legislature (1916–17). He served in the American Air Service (1917–18). He returned to St. Paul's until 1920 when he went to the state senate, and then served as governor (1925–27, 1933–35). Although a Republican, he was recognized as sympathetic to labor, and President Franklin Roosevelt got him appointed to the International Labor Organization (ICO) in Geneva (1935); he came back to Washington after a few months to head the newly created Social Security Board. On returning to the ICO in 1937, he became its director in 1939. Roosevelt named him ambassador to England (1940–46) and he helped plan the Three-Power Foreign Ministers Conference in Moscow (1943). In 1946 President Truman appointed him a representative to the Economic and Social Council of the UN.