Wendell Lewis Willkie (1892-1944) was an American lawyer and utilities executive who served as the Republican Party nominee in the 1940 presidential election. Willkie was born in Ellwood, Indiana, to Herman Francis Willkie (1857-1930) and Henrietta Trisch (1858-1940), both accomplished lawyers. Trisch was the first woman to be admitted to the Indiana bar. Following in his parents' footsteps, Willkie received a law degree from Indiana University Bloomington in 1916. After graduating, he practiced law with his father before enlisting in the United States Army and briefly serving in France during World War I. Following the end of the war, Willkie returned to the United States and relocated to Akron, Ohio. He was first employed by Firestone Rubber Company and then became a partner in a leading private law firm where he primarily represented the interests of electric utilities, such as Ohio Edison. In 1929, Willkie relocated once again, this time moving to New York City to become general counsel to, and eventually president of, utility holding company Commonwealth & Southern Corporation (C&S). One of his most high-profile cases while representing C&S was a fight against the Tennessee Valley Authority Act, which he believed would destroy the securities of small, local utility companies in Tennessee, many of whom were C&S subsidiaries. From 1933 to 1939, Willkie advocated vehemently against the Act, speaking to Congress, delivering speeches, and publishing articles and opinion pieces in various newspapers. Although Willkie's fight against the Tennessee Valley Authority Act was an eventual failure, his public criticism of the TVA, New Deal, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt's (1882-1945) administration brought him national notoriety as a business-friendly leader. Willkie switched his party registration from Democrat to Republican in 1939, and by 1940, he'd garnered enough grassroots support to become a "dark horse" candidate for the Republican Party's nominee in the upcoming presidential election. The start of World War II had rendered the 1940 election distinctly complicated, and disagreements between isolationists and interventionists split the Republican leadership during the convention. Willkie won the nomination on the sixth ballot and campaigned on a pro-business, pro-investment platform. He was eventually defeated in the general election by President Roosevelt, garnering 82 electoral college votes and over 22,000,000 popular votes. Willkie married Edith Wilk (1890-1978) in 1918. The couple had one son, Philip Herman Willkie (1919-1974).