Eugene Donald Millikin (February 12, 1891 – July 26, 1958) was a United States senator from Colorado who served as Senate Republican Conference Chairperson from 1947 to 1956.

Eugene Millikin
Republican Senate Conference Chairman
In office
January 3, 1947 – January 3, 1957
LeaderWallace H. White, Jr.
Kenneth S. Wherry
Styles Bridges
Robert A. Taft
William F. Knowland
Vice ChairMilton Young
Preceded byArthur H. Vandenberg
Succeeded byLeverett Saltonstall
Chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance
In office
January 3, 1953 – January 3, 1955
Preceded byWalter F. George
Succeeded byHarry F. Byrd
In office
January 3, 1947 – January 3, 1949
Preceded byWalter F. George
Succeeded byWalter F. George
United States Senator
from Colorado
In office
December 20, 1941 – January 3, 1957
Preceded byAlva B. Adams
Succeeded byJohn A. Carroll
Personal details
Born
Eugene Donald Millikin

(1891-02-12)February 12, 1891
Hamilton, Ohio
DiedJuly 26, 1958(1958-07-26) (aged 67)
Denver, Colorado
Political partyRepublican

Biography

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Born in Hamilton, Ohio, Millikin graduated from the law school of the University of Colorado at Boulder in 1913. He was admitted to the bar the same year and commenced practice in Salt Lake City, Utah. He entered politics and served as executive secretary to the Governor from 1915 to 1917. During World War I he enlisted as a private in the Colorado National Guard in 1917, saw action in France and was mustered out as a lieutenant colonel. Millikin resumed the practice of law in Denver, Colorado, and became president of Kinney-Coastal Oil.

Millikin was appointed by Governor Ralph Lawrence Carr on December 20, 1941, and subsequently elected on November 3, 1942, as a Republican to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy in the term ending January 3, 1945, caused by the death of Alva B. Adams. He was reelected in 1944 and 1950, and served in all from December 20, 1941, to January 3, 1957. (He was not a candidate for renomination in 1956).

He served as chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance, the Senate Republican Conference, the U.S. Senate Joint Committee on Internal Revenue Taxation.

Millikin identified with the conservative wing of the Senate GOP.[1] He also voted for an FEPC bill in 1950 in addition to bolstering President Harry Truman's army desegregation.[2][3]

In a meeting of the Joint Congressional Committee on Atomic Energy on July 20, 1949, he opposed - supported by Senator Arthur Vandenberg - a cooperation between the US and the UK in the production of atomic weapons because he believed that the American public opinion assumed that the US monopoly possession of atomic weapons gave the US a real advantage in an uncertain world.[4]

Millikin died in Denver in 1958 and was interred in the Fairmount Mausoleum at Fairmount Cemetery in Denver.

References

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  • United States Congress. "Eugene Millikin (id: M000771)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
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U.S. Senate
Preceded by U.S. senator (Class 3) from Colorado
1941–1957
Served alongside: Edwin C. Johnson, Gordon L. Allott
Succeeded by
Political offices
Preceded by Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee
1947–1949
Succeeded by
Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee
1953–1955
Succeeded by
Party political offices
Preceded by
Archibald A. Lee
Republican nominee for U.S. Senator from Colorado
(Class 3)

1942, 1944, 1950
Succeeded by
Preceded by Chairman of the Senate Republican Conference
1947–1956
Succeeded by