Governor Henry Frederick Schricker

HENRY FREDERICK SCHRICKER, Indiana’s thirty-sixth and thirty-eighth governor, was born in North Judson, Indiana, on August 20, 1883. His education was attained in North Judson’s public school system. For eleven years he owned and published a weekly newspaper, the Starke County Democrat. Schricker entered politics in 1932, serving as a one-term member to the Indiana State Senate. He also served as Indiana’s lieutenant governor from 1937 to 1940. Schricker won the 1940 Democratic gubernatorial nomination and was sworn into the governor’s office on January 13, 1941. He was reelected to a second term in 1949. During his tenure, the 1933 law that reorganized state government was annulled, the “ripper” bills were ruled unconstitutional by the Indiana Supreme Court, and the legislature strived to make welfare department records open to the public. After leaving office, Schricker joined the Wabash Fire and Casualty Company in Indianapolis. Schricker ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate in 1944 and 1952, and delivered the nomination speech for Adlai Stevenson at the 1952 Democratic National Convention. Franklin Roosevelt offered Schricker the 1944 vice presidential nomination, but he declined. Governor Henry F. Schricker died on December 28, 1966, and was buried at the Crown Hill Cemetery in Knox, Indiana.