Stuart Symington William Stuart Symington , Jr . ( ; June 26 , 1901 – December 14 , 1988 ) was an American businessman and politician from Missouri . He served as the first Secretary of the Air Force from 1947 to 1950 and was a Democratic United States Senator from Missouri from 1953 to 1976 . Education and business career . Symington was born in Amherst , Massachusetts to parents William Stuart Symington , Sr . and Emily Haxall ( née Harrison ) . His father , William , who received a Ph . D in French literature , was a romance languages professor at Stanford and Amherst College before pursuing a law career and becoming a federal judge in Baltimore , Maryland . His mother , Emily , a direct descendant of President Benjamin Harrison , came from a wealthy family in Virginia . Symington grew up in Baltimore , and was the oldest of his five brothers and sisters . Symington attended Roland Park Public School and the Gilman School , a private all - male preparatory school in Baltimore ' s Roland Park neighborhood . He graduated from Baltimore City College in 1918 , and at the age of 17 , Symington enlisted in the United States Army as a private first class during World War I . Stationed in an Officer Training Program at Camp Zachary Taylor in Louisville , Kentucky , Symington was never deployed to fight in WWI , with the war ending before he could seek deployment . Symington was commissioned as a second lieutenant , becoming one of the youngest members of the Army to achieve that rank ; being discharged as a second lieutenant in January 1919 . He graduated from Yale University in 1923 . At Yale he was a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity ( Phi chapter ) , the Elihu senior society , and served on the board of the " Yale Daily News " . In 1923 , Symington went to work for an uncle in the shops of the Symington Company of Rochester , New York , manufacturers of malleable iron products . Two years later he formed Eastern Clay Products but in 1927 returned to the Symington Company as executive assistant to the President . Symington resigned in 1930 to become President of the Colonial Radio Corporation . In January 1935 , he accepted the presidency of Rustless Iron and Steel Corporation ( manufacturers of stainless steel ) but remained a director of Colonial Radio Corporation . When Rustless Iron and Steel Corporation was sold to the American Rolling Mill Company in 1937 , Symington resigned and in 1938 accepted the presidency of Emerson Electric Company in St . Louis , Missouri . During World War II he transformed the company into the world ' s largest builder of airplane gun turret s . First Secretary of the Air Force . He resigned from Emerson in 1945 to join the administration of fellow Missourian Harry S . Truman . His first positions were chairman of the Surplus Property Board ( 1945 ) , administrator of the Property Administration ( 1945 – 1946 ) and Assistant Secretary of War for Air ( 1946 – 1947 ) . On September 18 , 1947 , the Office of the Secretary of the Air Force was created and Symington became the first Secretary . Symington had a stormy term as he moved to give the United States Air Force ( which previously had been part of the Army ) respect . He had numerous public battles with Secretary of Defense James Forrestal . During his tenure there was a major debate and investigation into production of the Convair B - 36 Bomber , which was the last piston - powered bomber at the beginning of the jet age . Major accomplishments during Symington ' s term as Secretary included the Berlin Airlift and championing the United States Air Force Academy . Symington resigned in 1950 to protest lack of funding for the Air Force after the Soviets detonated their first nuclear weapon . He remained in the administration as Chairman of the National Security Resources Board ( 1950 – 1951 ) and Reconstruction Finance Corporation Administrator ( 1951 – 1952 ) . U . S . Senator . Election . At the urging of his father - in - law James Wolcott Wadsworth , Jr . , a former Republican Speaker of the New York State Assembly and U . S . Senator from New York , Symington decided to run for the U . S . Senate . In 1952 , he was elected Senator from Missouri , scoring a win for the Democrats in a year otherwise favorable to the Republicans . He was re - elected in 1958 , 1964 and 1970 . Senate Armed Services and Foreign Relations committees . As a member of the Senate Armed Services and Foreign Relations committees , Symington specialized in military affairs and became known as an advocate for a strong national defense . He was also a strong supporter of the Air Force Academy . In 1954 , he charged that the Department of Defense had wasted millions of dollars on outdated weapons . He became a leading critic of U . S . involvement in the Vietnam War ( 1957 – 1975 ) . In 1958 , Symington accused the RAND Corporation of defeatism for studying how the United States might strategically surrender to an enemy power . This led to the passage of a prohibition on the spending of tax dollars on the study of defeat or surrender of any kind . However , the senator had apparently misunderstood , as the report was a survey of past cases in which the United States had demanded unconditional surrender of " its " enemies , asking whether or not this had been a more favorable outcome to U . S . interests than an earlier , negotiated surrender might have been . Opponent of Joseph McCarthy . Symington was an especially prominent opponent of Senator Joseph McCarthy , to the vexation of the latter , who nicknamed him " Sanctimonious Stu " . He involved himself in the case of Annie Lee Moss , who had been brought before McCarthy ' s committee under the accusation that she was a Communist spy . Evidence supporting this claim was given by an undercover FBI agent who could not be cross - examined by Mrs . Moss or her counsel . As it appeared that Moss had been mistakenly identified , Symington proclaimed before the packed audience that he believed she was not a Communist and had never been , receiving thunderous applause from those present . Later that year , Symington took a lead role in censuring McCarthy during the Army – McCarthy hearings , capitalizing upon his prominence and expertise as a former Secretary of the Air Force . Presidential candidacy . In 1959 , Symington , then Chairman of the National Security Resources Board in Washington , D . C . , was preparing to run in the 1960 presidential election and won the backing of former President Harry S . Truman , but eventually lost the nomination to Senator John F . Kennedy . On July 2 , 1960 , Truman announced that he would not be attending the Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles . Truman was miffed that the convention was being controlled by the " overzealous " supporters of Kennedy . Announcing his decision , Truman restated his support for the candidacy of Symington and added , " I have no second choice " . Symington , unlike Kennedy or Lyndon B . Johnson , refused to speak to segregated audiences in the southern United States and this hurt his chances . He was considered Kennedy ' s first choice for Vice President but was dropped in favor of Texas Senator Lyndon B . Johnson . He advised President Kennedy as a member of EXCOMM during the October 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis . Other issues . Symington was also committed to constituent services , answering letters from Missouri citizens both important , trivial , and sometimes even zany . As an example , Symington once formally requested a report from military sources regarding the possible existence of subterranean superhumans , which one of his constituents had become concerned about after reading a fiction book and mistaking it for non - fiction . In 2002 , this and Symington ' s other senatorial correspondence and papers were donated to the Western Historical Manuscripts Collection of the University of Missouri and are now available to the general public . In 1967 when Major League Baseball owners approved the move of the Kansas City Athletics to Oakland , California , he threatened legislation to revoke the league ' s antitrust exemption and vowed to support lawsuits challenging the legality of the reserve clause . Kansas City was awarded an expansion team , the Kansas City Royals , which was scheduled to begin play in 1971 . Symington , saying Kansas City should not wait , continued to threaten the league , and the team began play in 1969 . Resignation . In 1976 , Symington did not seek a fifth term and resigned on December 27 , four days before the end of his final term , so that his Republican successor , John Danforth , would gain a seniority advantage in the Senate . Legacy . In 1962 , in recognition of his career , Princeton University ' s American Whig - Cliosophic Society awarded Symington the James Madison Award for Distinguished Public Service . His son , James W . Symington , served in the United States House of Representatives from Missouri ' s Second Congressional District from 1969 to 1977 . His cousin , Fife Symington III , was Governor of Arizona from 1991 to 1997 . His grandson , also named W . Stuart Symington , is employed by the U . S . State Department and is currently serving as the U . S . ambassador to Rwanda . He is a distant relative of UK - based travel writer Martin Symington . Symington was an active member of the Grand Lodge of Missouri Ancient Free and Accepted Masons . Symington retired in 1978 to his home in New Canaan , Connecticut , where he died on December 14 , 1988 . He is buried in a crypt in Washington National Cathedral .