Anning Smith Prall

Who was Anning Smith Prall?

Anning Smith Prall was a representative from New York, born in Port Richmond, Staten Island.

In his early years Prall was employed as a clerk in a New York newspaper office. Prall attended New York University, studying business. From 1908 until 1918 he was in charge of a real estate department of a bank. Prall was appointed a member of the New York City Board of Education on January 1, 1918, and served until December 31, 1921. He elected its president, commissioner of taxes and assessment three times in 1922 and 1923.

He was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1924 and was elected as a Democrat to the Sixty-eighth Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Daniel J. Riordan; reelected to the sixty-ninth and to the four succeeding Congresses and served from November 6, 1923 to January 3, 1935; was not a candidate for renomination in 1934. Prall served as a member and chairman of the Federal Communications Commission from January 15, 1935 until his death in 1937 at his summer home in Boothbay Harbor, Maine. He is interred at Moravian Cemetery in New Dorp, Staten Island.

Intermediate school 27 on Staten Island is also known as the Anning S. Prall School.