1951 Special Passport – Claude R.Wickard
Former WW2 Roosevelt Government official.
Among the items that attract my attention are those relating to important political figures connected to WW2 or other turbulent periods of the 20th Century.
One such item can be attributed to the holder of this passport Claude R. Wickard who was issued a US Special Passport on December 18th 1950 at Washington.
SP number 24041 was issued to him on the capacity of being the “Administrator of rural electrification administration (REA), department of agriculture, is proceeding abroad on official business“.
In addition to the above, it is also clearly stated on page 7 that the “Bearer is also a member of the delegation of the United States to the fourth plenary session of the international commission on large dams, sectional meeting of the world power conference and meeting of the international association of hydraulic research to convene in India“.
Claude R.Wickard was born on February 28th 1893 and tragically died in a car accident on April 29th 1967.
His worked for an official US program (REA) that was established on May 11th 1935 by the late president Franklin Delano Roosevelt as part of the New Deal Agencies and its goal was to promote the rural electrification of the country. He resigned his war time post as Secretary of Agriculture in order to take charge of this agency on July 1st 1945, a position held until March 16th 1953.
The passport has lovely special & official visas from the following diplomatic legations: Egypt, India, Turkey and the UK. Interesting enough, there is also an Allied entry approval endorsement for occupied Japan (he prepared in advance his Military Permit No.10454 for entry to Japan back in the US, dating December 21st 1950).
I have added images of this official post-war related US passport.
Thank you for reading “Our Passports”.
