Willard Wirtz

William Willard Wirtz was born March 14, 1912, in DeKalb, Ill. He earned a bachelor's degree from Beloit College in Wisconsin in 1933 and taught high school at Kewanee, Ill., before receiving a law degree from Harvard University in 1937. He later taught at the University of Iowa and, for several years, at the Northwestern University law school. In Washington during World War II, Wirtz was an assistant general counsel for the Board of Economic Warfare and counsel to and later a member of the War Labor Board. He also served as chairman of the National Wage Stabilization Board in 1946 and as its executive director in 1951. As part of a long association with Adlai E. Stevenson, Wirtz was a key adviser during the former Illinois governor's two campaigns for president, in 1952 and 1956, as the Democratic nominee. He practiced law with Stevenson from 1955 until he joined the Kennedy administration. Wirtz left a Chicago law firm to join the Kennedy administration as undersecretary of labor in 1961. President John F. Kennedy promoted him to the top job in 1962 just one day after naming Labor Secretary Arthur J. Goldberg to the Supreme Court. Wirtz continued in the post after Johnson succeeded Kennedy in 1963 and stayed on until Johnson completed his term in January 1969. He remained in Washington and resumed the practice of law, often serving on boards and pursuing labor-related projects. His wife, Jane, who died in 2002, was a prominent Washington socialite who was active in political and social organizations. Wirtz was married for 66 years to Jane Quisenberry Wirtz. He is survived by two sons, Richard and Philip, and two sisters.