
Maurice Clifford Townsend (11 August 1884-11 November 1954) was the Democratic Governor of Indiana from 11 January 1937 to 13 January 1941, succeeding Paul V. McNutt and preceding Henry F. Schricker.
Biography[]
Maurice Clifford Townsend was born in Blackford County, Indiana in 1884, and he was raised on a country farm before becoming a school teacher and superintendent. He served in the state house from1 925 to 1929, as Lieutenant Governor from 1933 to 1937, and as Governor from 1937 to 1941, having been nominated by his mother. He was praised for his handling of the Great Flood of 1937, and he created the state Division of Labor to mediate union strikes after violent General Motors strikes broke out in Anderson; the division also prevented a Gary steelworkers' strike from turning violent. The Republicans took control of the state house in 1939, blocking Townsend's new social programs; however, he was able to pass mandatory driver's license examinations, pensions for the state's firemen, free textbooks for public schools, and the painting of school buses in yellow for safety's sake (starting a nationwide trend). He retired from federal service in 1943 and lost his 1946 US Senate bid, and he died in 1954.