An abundance of biographical material on Alexander Wiley is available in the collection (Series 7, Boxes 55 and 56). The brief chronology of Wiley's life that follows is intended as a frame of reference and as such includes only the most significant highlights of Wiley's long career. He served longer than any previous United States Senator from Wisconsin, exceeding in seniority if not fame the La Follettes junior and senior, and Joseph McCarthy. During the course of his twenty-four year career, 1939-1963, he became chairman of two of the Senate's most powerful and prestigious committees: Foreign Relations and Judiciary. He considered his most significant achievement to be the passage of the St. Lawrence Seaway legislation and the subsequent implementation of the bill's mandate. At his defeat for reelection in 1962 by Gaylord Nelson he was the ranking Republican in the Senate. He spent the remaining five years of his life in relative seclusion in Washington, D.C.
| 1884 May 26 |
Born, Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, of Norwegian ancestry. Wiley's mother was Sophia Ekern Wiley (died 1932) and father was Alec Wiley (Hvila) (died 1922)
|
| 1902 |
Graduated from high school in Chippewa Falls
|
| 1902-1904 |
Attended Augsburg College, Minneapolis, Minnesota
|
| 1904-1906 |
Attended University of Michigan Law School
|
| 1907 |
Attended University of Wisconsin Law School; Received
LLB; Admitted to the Wisconsin Bar
|
| 1909 November 15 |
Married May Jenkins
|
| 1909-1915 |
District Attorney of Chippewa County, Wisconsin
|
| 1915-1918 |
Attorney, Operator of dairy farm, Director of First National Bank of Chippewa Falls, President of Chippewa Falls Commercial Association, and Chippewa Falls School Board member
|
| 1933 |
Governor of Wisconsin-Upper Michigan District of Kiwanis International
|
| 1936 |
Unsuccessful Republican candidate for Governor of Wisconsin
|
| 1938 |
Elected to U.S. Senate
|
| 1939-1945 |
Servered on the following Senate Committees: Agriculture, Claims, Commerce, Mines and Mining, Naval Affairs, Privileges and Elections, Rules, and Small Business
|
| 1939 September |
U.S. delegate Inter-Parliamentary Union Conference (Oslo, Norway)
|
| 1944 |
Re-elected to U.S. Senate
|
| 1945 |
Became a member of the Foreign Relations Committee
|
| 1946 |
U.S. Representative British Empire Parliamentary Conference (Bermuda)
|
| 1947-1949 |
Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee
|
| 1948 |
Head of U.S. Delegation British Empire Parliamentary Conference (Bermuda)
|
| 1950 |
Re-elected to U.S. Senate
|
| 1950-1951 |
Member, Senate Committee for the Investigation of Crime in Interstate Commerce (Kefauver Committee)
|
| 1951 September |
Delegate to Japanese Peace Treaty Signing (San Francisco)
|
| 1952 August |
U.S. Representative Inter-Parliamentary Union Conference (Bern)
|
| 1952-1953 |
U.S. Delegate to the United Nations 7th General Assembly
|
| 1953 |
Censured by the Wisconsin Republican State Convention for refusing to support the Bricker amendment
|
| 1953 October |
U.S. Representative Inter-Parliamentary Union Conference (Washington)
|
| 1953-1954 |
Chairman Senate Foreign Relations Committee
|
| 1954 September |
U.S. Representative Inter-Parliamentary Union Conference (Vienna)
|
| 1954 |
Delegate Latin American Economic Congress (Rio de Janeiro)
|
| 1955 |
U.S. Representative Inter-Parliamentary Union Conference (Helsinki)
|
| 1956 |
Wisconsin State Republican Committee refuses to endorse Wiley for re-election
|
| 1956 |
Re-elected to U.S. Senate
|
| 1957 |
U.S. Representative Inter-Parliamentary Conference (London)
|
| 1958 |
Delegate International Meeting on Patents and Copyrights (Lisbon, Portugal)
|
| 1959 |
Vice-Chairman U.S. Delegation NATO Parliamentarians Conference (Washington)
|
| 1960 |
Became the ranking Republican Senator
|
| 1962 |
Defeated for re-election by Gaylord Nelson
|
| 1963-1967 |
Lived in retirement in Washington, D.C.
|
| 1967 October 26 |
Died in a Philadelphia nursing home after suffering a stroke
|
