Background and career
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882 – April 12, 1945), also known as FDR, was the 32nd president of the United States, serving from 1933 until his death in 1945. He is the longest-serving US president and the only one to have served more than two terms. His first two terms centered on combating the Great Depression, while his third and fourth focused on US involvement in World War II. A member of the Democratic Party, Roosevelt served in the New York State Senate from 1911 to 1913 and as the 44th governor of New York from 1929 to 1932. Born into the prominent Delano and Roosevelt families, Roosevelt graduated from Harvard University. He was elected to the New York State Senate in 1910, before becoming the assistant secretary of the Navy under President Woodrow Wilson in 1913. Roosevelt was the running mate of James M. Cox on the Democratic ticket in the 1920 presidential election, which Cox lost to Republican nominee Warren G. Harding. In 1921, an illness permanently paralyzed his legs. However, partly through the encouragement of his wife Eleanor, he was elected governor of New York in 1928. As governor, he promoted programs to combat the Great Depression. Roosevelt defeated President Herbert Hoover in a landslide victory in the 1932 presidential election. During his first 100 days as president, Roosevelt initiated the program to implement the New Deal, built the New Deal coalition, and realigned American politics into the Fifth Party System. He created programs to provide relief to the unemployed and farmers while seeking economic recovery with the National Recovery Administration and other programs. He was re-elected in 1936, in one of the largest landslide victories in American history. Major surviving programs and legislation implemented under Roosevelt include the Securities and Exchange Commission, the National Labor Relations Act, and Social Security. In 1940, he was reelected, as there were no presidential term limits until 1951. Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Roosevelt obtained a declaration of war on Japan, and subsequently on Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. Roosevelt supervised the mobilization of the American economy to support the war effort and implemented a Europe first strategy. He also initiated the development of the first atomic bomb and worked with the other Allied leaders to lay the groundwork for the United Nations. Roosevelt won reelection in 1944, but died in 1945. Since then, some of his actions have been criticized, such as his ordering of the internment of Japanese Americans. Nonetheless, historical rankings consistently place him among the three greatest American presidents.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt was born on January 30, 1882, in Hyde Park, New York, to James Roosevelt I and his second wife, Sara Ann Delano. His parents, who were sixth cousins, came from the wealthy Roosevelt and Delano families. They resided at Springwood, a large estate south of Hyde Park's historic center. James, "a wealthy, landed gentleman who dabbled in but usually devoted no great effort to business", was a prominent Bourbon Democrat. His mother Sara "devoted virtually all her energies to raising her only child". Franklin had a half-brother, James Roosevelt "Rosy" Roosevelt, from his father's previous marriage. According to Alan Brinkley, the family lived "in a manner reminiscent of the English aristocracy, and Franklin grew up, therefore, in a remarkably cosseted environment, insulated from the normal experiences of most American boys". Frequent trips to Europe and Canada helped Roosevelt become conversant in German and French. Aside from a stint in public school in Germany at age nine, Roosevelt was homeschooled by tutors until age 14. He then attended Groton School, an exclusive Episcopal boarding school in Groton, Massachusetts. He was not among the more popular Groton students, who were better athletes. Its headmaster, Endicott Peabody, preached the duties of Christians and urged his students to enter public service. Peabody remained a strong influence throughout Roosevelt's life, officiating at his wedding and presiding over the church service which preceded his inauguration as president. Like most of his Groton classmates, Roosevelt went to Harvard College. He was a member of the Alpha Delta Phi fraternity "Fly Club", though he regretted not being admitted to the Porcellian Club. Roosevelt was relatively undistinguished as a student or athlete, but he became editor-in-chief of The Harvard Crimson newspaper. Roosevelt's father died in 1900. The following year, Roosevelt's cousin Theodore Roosevelt became US president. Theodore's vigorous leadership style and reforming zeal made him Franklin's role model. Franklin graduated from Harvard in three years in 1903 with an A.B. in history. He took graduate courses for an additional year to continue his work with the Crimson. Roosevelt entered Columbia Law School in 1904, but dropped out in 1907 after passing the bar.
While at college, Roosevelt met and proposed to the heiress Alice Ruggles Sohier, who declined. Franklin then began courting his childhood acquaintance and fifth cousin once removed, Eleanor Roosevelt, a niece of Theodore Roosevelt. In 1903, Franklin proposed to Eleanor. Despite "initial resistance" from his mother, Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt were married on March 17, 1905. Theodore, who was then President, gave away the bride since Eleanor's father Elliott was deceased. The young couple moved into Springwood. Franklin's mother, Sara Roosevelt, also provided a townhouse for the newlyweds in New York City, and had a house built for herself alongside that townhouse. Eleanor never felt at home in the houses at Hyde Park or New York City. However, she loved the family's vacation home on Campobello Island, also a gift from Sara. Burns indicates that young Franklin Roosevelt was self-assured and at ease in the upper class. On the other hand, Eleanor was shy and insecure, and initially focused on her husband's career. As his father had done, Franklin left childcare to his wife, and Eleanor assigned the task to caregivers. They had six children. Their only daughter, Anna, was born in 1906. James was born in 1907. The couple's second son, Franklin, died in infancy in 1909. Elliott was born in 1910, another son named Franklin followed in 1914, and the youngest, John, was born in 1916. Roosevelt had multiple extramarital affairs. He commenced an affair with Eleanor's social secretary, Lucy Mercer, soon after she was hired in 1914. Eleanor discovered the affair in 1918. Franklin contemplated divorcing Eleanor, but Sara objected, and Mercer would not marry a divorced man with five children. Franklin promised never to see Mercer again, but his marriage to Eleanor shifted to become a political partnership. Eleanor soon established a separate home in Hyde Park at Val-Kill and devoted herself to social and political causes independent of her husband. Franklin broke his promise: he and Mercer maintained a correspondence and began seeing each other again by 1941. Roosevelt's son Elliott claimed that his father also had an affair with his private secretary, Missy LeHand.
In 1908, Roosevelt took an unsalaried position with the prestigious law firm of Carter Ledyard & Milburn, later moving into the firm's admiralty law division. Roosevelt cared little for the practice of law and told friends he planned to enter politics. Despite his admiration for his Republican cousin Theodore, Franklin accepted an invitation to run for the Democratic Party in the 1910 elections for the New York State Assembly. He was a compelling candidate due to his name recognition and his family's financial and social backing, but his campaign ended after the Democratic incumbent, Lewis Stuyvesant Chanler, chose to seek re-election. Rather than putting his political hopes on hold, Roosevelt ran for a seat in the New York State Senate. The senate district, located in Dutchess, Columbia, and Putnam Counties, was strongly Republican. Roosevelt feared that opposition from Theodore could end his campaign, but Theodore encouraged his candidacy despite their party differences. Acting as his own campaign manager, Roosevelt traveled throughout the senate district via automobile, at a time when few could afford a car. In the Democratic landslide in the 1910 United States elections, Roosevelt won a surprising victory. Despite short legislative sessions, Roosevelt treated his new position as a full-time career. Taking his seat on January 1, 1911, Roosevelt soon became the leader of the "Insurgents" in opposition to the Tammany Hall machine that dominated the state Democratic Party. In the 1911 US Senate election, Roosevelt and nineteen other Democrats caused a prolonged deadlock by opposing the Tammany-backed candidate. This made him a well-known figure in the press. News articles and cartoons depicted "the second coming of a Roosevelt" sending "cold shivers down the spine" of Tammany Hall. Roosevelt also opposed Tammany Hall by supporting Woodrow Wilson's successful bid for the 1912 Democratic nomination. With help from journalist Louis McHenry Howe, he was re-elected in 1912. After the election, he chaired the Agriculture Committee; his work on farm and labor bills was a precursor to his later New Deal policies.
Roosevelt's support of Wilson led to his desired appointment in March 1913 as Assistant Secretary of the Navy, the second-ranking official in the Navy Department after Secretary Josephus Daniels, who tended towards pacifism. Roosevelt was enthusiastic (sometimes to the point of insubordination) and "an impassioned promoter of the Navy" who "viewed himself as a vital voice for national defense". Daniels and Roosevelt instituted a merit-based promotion system and extended civilian control over the autonomous departments of the Navy. Roosevelt oversaw the Navy's civilian employees and gained valuable experience working with both union leaders and with Congress. Roosevelt sometimes lent assistance to discriminatory policies of Wilson and Daniels. In 1916, for example, he carried out an order to designate at considerable expense separate toilets for "the use of [white] women, white men and colored." The NAACP and civil rights organizations objected so strenuously that the order was rescinded without explanation a month later. In 1914, Roosevelt ran for the seat of retiring Republican Senator Elihu Root of New York. Though he had the backing of Treasury Secretary William Gibbs McAdoo and Governor Martin H. Glynn, he faced a formidable opponent in Tammany Hall's James W. Gerard. He also was without Wilson's support, as the president needed Tammany's forces for his legislation and 1916 re-election. Roosevelt was soundly defeated in the Democratic primary. After the election, he and Tammany Hall boss Charles Francis Murphy became allies. Roosevelt refocused on the Navy Department when World War I broke out in 1914. Though he remained publicly supportive of Wilson, Roosevelt was privately opposed to neutrality. Following the sinking of the RMS Lusitania by a German submarine, Roosevelt helped establish the US Navy Reserve and proposed the Council of National Defense. In April 1917, after Germany declared it would engage in unrestricted submarine warfare and attacked several US ships, Congress approved Wilson's call for a declaration of war on Germany. Roosevelt requested that he be allowed to serve as a naval officer, but Wilson insisted that he continue as Assistant Secretary. For the next year, Roosevelt coordinated the naval deployment from Washington, as the Navy expanded fourfold. In the summer of 1918, Roosevelt traveled to Europe to inspect naval installations and meet with French and British officials, including King George V and prime ministers David Lloyd George and Georges Clemenceau. In September, on the ship voyage back to the US, he contracted pandemic influenza with complicating pneumonia, which left him unable to work for a month. After the Armistice of 11 November 1918, Daniels and Roosevelt supervised the demobilization of the Navy. Against the advice of older officers such as Admiral William S. Benson—who claimed he could not "conceive of any use the fleet will ever have for aviation"—Roosevelt argued for the preservation of the Navy's Aviation Division. He also approved the investigation that led to the Newport sex scandal, for which he was reprimanded by a 1921 congresional subcommittee.
With Wilson's presidency nearing its end, Roosevelt planned his next run for office. He approached the public-minded businessman Herbert Hoover about running for the 1920 Democratic presidential nomination, with Roosevelt as his running mate. Roosevelt's plan for Hoover to run fell through after Hoover declared his alignment with the Republican Party, but Roosevelt continued to seek the 1920 vice presidential nomination. After Governor James M. Cox of Ohio won the party's presidential nomination at the 1920 Democratic National Convention, he chose Roosevelt as his running mate. Although his nomination surprised most people, he balanced the ticket as a moderate and a prohibitionist with a famous name. During the campaign, Cox and Roosevelt defended Wilson's presidency and the League of Nations, both of which were unpopular in 1920. Roosevelt personally supported US membership in the League, but, unlike Wilson, he favored compromising with Senator Henry Cabot Lodge and other "Reservationists". Republican Warren G. Harding and his running mate Calvin Coolidge defeated the Cox–Roosevelt ticket in the presidential election by a wide margin. Roosevelt later reflected that the relationships and goodwill that he built in the 1920 campaign proved to be a major asset in his 1932 campaign. The 1920 election also saw the first public participation of Eleanor Roosevelt, who established herself as a valuable political player. After the election, Roosevelt returned to New York City, where he practiced law and served as a vice president of the Fidelity and Deposit Company.
Sources
Net-worth figure: Celebrity Net Worth (October 2026), in USD. Biography and career facts: the person's Wikipedia article and linked reporting. Snapshot date for all StarWorth figures: 28 October 2026.
