Samuel H. Shapiro

Who was Samuel H. Shapiro?

Samuel Harvey Shapiro was the 34th Governor of Illinois, serving from 1968 to 1969. He was a member of the Democratic Party.

Born in 1907 in the Governorate of Estonia of the Russian Empire, he emigrated to the United States at an early age. He graduated from the University of Illinois College of Law. As a lawyer, Shapiro practiced in Kankakee, Illinois. Turning to public service, he was elected state's attorney of Kankakee County in 1936. From 1947-61 he served in the Illinois State House of Representatives, where he took a special interest in mental health issues.

Shapiro was elected the 38th Lieutenant Governor of Illinois in 1960 and again in 1964, and took office as governor when the previous governor Otto Kerner, Jr. resigned to accept appointment to the federal appellate court. Shapiro thus became the second Jewish governor of Illinois. Illinois thereby became the first state to have had two Jewish governors; New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island have each since elected at least a second governor of the faith.

Upon becoming governor, Shapiro ran at once for a full term of his own, but was narrowly defeated by Republican Richard B. Ogilvie in the 1968 election.