Up for auction the "Atomic Energy Commission" David Lilienthal Signed 3.25X5.75 Card. 

ES-1878

David Eli Lilienthal (July

8, 1899 – January 15, 1981) was an American attorney and public administrator, best known

for his Presidential Appointment to head Tennessee Valley Authority and later the Atomic

Energy Commission (AEC). He had practiced public utility law

and led the Wisconsin Public Utilities Commission. Later

he was co-author with Dean Acheson (later Secretary of State)

of the 1946 Report on the International Control

of Atomic Energy, which outlined possible methods for

international control of nuclear weapons. As chair of the AEC, he was one of the

pioneers in civilian management of nuclear power resources. Born

in Morton, Illinois in

1899, David Lilienthal was the oldest son of Jewish immigrants from Austria-Hungary. His mother Minna Rosenak (1874–1956) came

from Szomolány (now Smolenice) in Slovakia, emigrating to America at age 17. His father Leo

Lilienthal (1868–1951) was from Hungary, serving several years in the Hungarian army before

emigrating to the United States in 1893. Minna and Leo were married in Chicago

in 1897, then moved to the town of Morton, where Leo briefly operated a dry

goods store. Leo's

business ventures took the family several places. Young David was raised

principally in the Indiana towns of Valparaiso and Michigan City. Although

he spent part of his sophomore year

in Gary, he graduated in 1916

from Elston High School in Michigan City. Lilienthal attended DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana,

where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa in

1920. There he joined Delta Upsilon social fraternity and was elected president

of the student body. He was active in forensics and

won a state oratorical contest in 1918. He also gained distinction as

a light heavyweight boxer.

After

a summer job in 1920 as a reporter for the Mattoon, Illinois, Daily Journal-Gazette,

Lilienthal entered Harvard Law School. Although

his grades were average until his third and final year at Harvard, he acquired

an important mentor in Professor Felix Frankfurter, later an associate justice of the United States Supreme Court.

While

at DePauw, Lilienthal met his future wife, Helen Marian Lamb (1896–1999), a

fellow student. Born in Oklahoma, she had moved with her family to Crawfordsville, Indiana,

in 1913. They were married in Crawfordsville in 1923, after Helen had

completed her M.A. at Radcliffe while David was a law student at Harvard.