A. S. J. CARNAHAN  

Youngest of a family of 11 children, A.S.J. Carnahan was born January 9, 1897, on a farm near Ellsinore, Missouri. He attended the Crommertown one-room country school near his family's farm home in Carter County, and in 1914, at the age of 17, began teaching in the Crommertown School, a rural school in his home county. After two years teaching at Crommertown and two years at Hogan Hollow, another rural school in Carter County, he taught fourth through eighth grades for one year in Ellsinore.

Mr. Carnahan spent one year in the United States Navy during World War I, serving in an aviation unit stationed in Ireland, and then returned home to finish his formal education and begin a career as Superintendent of Schools in Missouri's hill counties. After completing the last two years of high school at the College High School in Cape Girardeau, Carnahan earned a Bachelor's Degree in Education from Southeast Missouri State Teachers College (now University) in 1926, attending classes mostly during the Spring and Summer terms. In 1932, he received a Master's Degree from the University of Missouri.

The Southeast graduate served as a school administrator in Carter, Reynolds, and Shannon Counties until 1944, when he received the Democratic nomination for Representative in Congress from Missouri's Eighth Congressional District.

He was elected to Congress in November of that year, and served seven terms until his retirement in January 1961.

As a Member of Congress, Mr. Carnahan served on the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, beginning with his first term, and at the time of his retirement was the ranking member of that Committee. For several years, he served as Chairman of the Subcommittee on International Organizations and Movements and the Subcommittee on Africa. He helped write such major legislation as the GI Bill, the Marshall Plan, the Area Development Act, and a revision of the Social Security statutes, was a delegate to the 12th General Assembly of the United Nations in 1957, and served as Congressional Advisor to the U. S. Delegation to the Second International Conference on Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy in Geneva in 1958.

After leaving office, Carnahan was appointed by President John F. Kennedy to serve as the United States Ambassador to the newly independent African nation of Sierra Leone, and he arrived in that country's' capital on June 8, 1961, and served for two years.

Upon his retirement from public life, Mr. Carnahan returned to his home in Ellsinore, and continued his interest in international service as a member of the Rotary Club of Poplar Bluff. He became Rotary District World Service Chairman, and inaugurated a program to aid in the education of children in Sierra Leone.

He was the recipient of the University's Alumni Merit Award in 1962, in recognition of his long and distinguished career in public service.

Mr. Carnahan and his wife, the former Kathel Schupp, were the parents of two children, Robert E. and Melvin E. Carnahan.

Mr. Carnahan died March 24, 1968.

Links

• The Political Graveyard

• U.S. Congress

====== PRESS RELEASE ======

CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo., Sept. 3, 1998 -- The Southeast Missouri State University Board of Regents today voted unanimously to name the University's restored Social Science Building "A. S. J. Carnahan Hall."

Donald L. Dickerson, president of the Board, said the action was taken to pay tribute to the memory of a distinguished son of Southeast Missouri State University and in recognition of the contributions of the late Albert Sidney Johnson Carnahan and his family to the history of Missouri and its political life, as well as to national and international affairs.

The Departments of Political Science and History are housed in the restored building.

The Social Science Building, constructed in 1901-1902, as the "Science Hall," has served the University for almost a century, but has never been formally named.

"It is most appropriate," Dickerson said, "at the beginning of the University's 125th Anniversary celebration, to name the building for one of the institution's most distinguished graduates, symbolizing the hundreds of Southeast alumni who have gone on to significant careers in the area of public service -- individuals who have practiced political science and helped make history."

"Such a graduate was the late Congressman and U. S. Ambassador A. S. J. Carnahan, whose life, like the service of the Social Science Building, spanned most of the first century of the institution's history," Dickerson said.

Dr. Peter Bergerson, chair of the Department of Political Science, agreed that the Board's decision is an appropriate one. "It is very fitting to name this building after one whose life was devoted to the activities we are engaged in preparing our students to perform," Bergerson said.

"Naming the building for Congressman Carnahan is also a perfect fit with the theme of the University's 125th anniversary celebration, 'Honoring yesterday -- creating tomorrow'," he added. "By remembering one of our distinguished alumni in this way we are honoring the University's past, even as this wonderful new facility becomes available for our work of creating leaders for the society of tomorrow.

"I am delighted that we are memorializing a man whose life was devoted to public service and the intellectual pursuits of political science and history," Bergerson concluded.

One of four historic academic structures on the Southeast campus, until 1993 the Social Science building housed the Departments of Political Science, History, and Sociology & Anthropology, the Dean of the College of Liberal Arts, the College advising center, and 10 classrooms.

During planning for minor renovations in 1992-93, structural problems were noted and an engineering firm was employed to provide a professional opinion on the condition of the building. The report concluded that the structural integrity of the second and third floors was suspect, and that those floors should be considered unsafe for use as classrooms or offices.

As a result, the building was closed, and temporary arrangements were made for the faculty, dean, and students who had formerly used the building.

The funds to construct a "brand new" Social Science Building inside the historic 1902 stone-and-brick shell, were appropriated by the General Assembly upon the recommendation of Missouri Governor Mel Carnahan, and the project was completed in time for the start of the present semester.