Query: Becoming chief justice was William Howard Taft's personal ambition.

Relevant passages:
William Howard Taft <=SEP=> William Howard Taft ( September 15 , 1857 -- March 8 , 1930 ) served as the 27th President of the United States ( 1909 -- 1913 ) and as the tenth Chief Justice of the United States ( 1921 -- 1930 ) , the only person to have held both offices . Taft was elected president in 1908 , the chosen successor of Theodore Roosevelt , but was defeated for re-election by Woodrow Wilson in 1912 after Roosevelt split the Republican vote by running as a third-party candidate . In 1921 , President Warren G. Harding appointed Taft to be chief justice , a position in which he served until a month before his death .   Taft was born in Cincinnati in 1857 . His father , Alphonso Taft , was a U.S. Attorney General and Secretary of War . William Taft attended Yale and was a member of Skull and Bones secret society like his father , and after becoming a lawyer was appointed a judge while still in his twenties . He continued a rapid rise , being named Solicitor General and as a judge of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals . In 1901 , President William McKinley appointed Taft civilian governor of the Philippines . In 1904 , Roosevelt made him Secretary of War , and he became Roosevelt 's hand-picked successor . Despite his personal ambition to become chief justice , Taft declined repeated offers of appointment to the Supreme Court of the United States , believing his political work to be more important .   With Roosevelt 's help , Taft had little opposition for the Republican nomination for president in 1908 , and easily defeated William Jennings Bryan for the presidency that November . In the White House , he focused on East Asia more than European affairs , and repeatedly intervened to prop up or remove Latin American governments . Taft sought reductions to trade tariffs , then a major source of governmental income , but the resulting bill was heavily influenced by special interests . His administration was filled with conflict between the conservative wing of the Republican Party , with which Taft often sympathized , and the progressive wing , toward which Roosevelt moved more and more . Controversies over conservation and over antitrust cases filed by the Taft administration served to further separate the two men . Roosevelt challenged Taft for renomination in 1912 . Taft used his control of the party machinery to gain a bare majority of delegates , and Roosevelt bolted the party . The split left Taft with little chance of re-election ; he took only Utah and Vermont in Wilson 's victory .   After leaving office , Taft returned to Yale as a professor , continuing his political activity and working against war through the League to Enforce Peace . In 1921 , President Harding appointed Taft as chief justice , an office he had long sought . Chief Justice Taft was a conservative on business issues , but under him , there were advances in individual rights . In poor health , he resigned in February 1930 . After his death the next month , he was buried at Arlington National Cemetery , the first president and first Supreme Court justice to be interred there . Taft is generally listed near the middle in historians ' rankings of U.S. presidents .