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Life and career: Fixed grammar

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{{Short description|27th Governor of California and 30th Mayor of San Francisco}}
{{For|the schooner built in 1899|James Rolph (ship)}}
{{distinguish|James Rolfe}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2011}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| image = James Rolph Jr. Crop.jpg
| caption = Rolph in 1928
| office1 = Chair of the [[National Governors Association]]
| term_start1 = July 26, 1933
| term_end1 = June 2, 1934
| predecessor1 = [[John Garland Pollard]]
| successor1 = [[Paul V. McNutt]]
| order = 27th [[Governor of California]]
| lieutenant = Frank Merriam
| term_start = January 6, 1931
| term_end = June 2, 1934
| predecessor = [[C. C. Young]]
| successor = [[Frank Merriam]]
| office2 = 30th [[Mayor of San Francisco]]
| term_start2 = January 8, 1912
| term_end2 = January 6, 1931
| predecessor2 = [[P. H. McCarthy]]
| successor2 = [[Angelo Joseph Rossi|Angelo Rossi]]
| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{birth date|1869|8|23}}
| birth_place = [[San Francisco]], California, U.S.
| death_date = {{death date and age|1934|6|2|1869|8|23}}
| death_place = {{nowrap|[[Santa Clara County, California]],}} U.S.
| party = [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]]
| spouse = Annie Marshall Reid
| children = 3
| resting_place = [[Greenlawn Memorial Park (Colma, California)|Greenlawn Memorial Park]], Colma, California, U.S.
}}
'''James''' "'''Sunny Jim'''" '''Rolph Jr.''' (August 23, 1869 – June 2, 1934) was an American politician. A member of the [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican Party]], he was elected to a single term as the 27th [[governor of California]] from January 6, 1931, until his death on June 2, 1934, at the height of the [[Great Depression]]. Previously, Rolph had been the 30th [[mayor of San Francisco]] from January 8, 1912, until his [[resignation]] in 1931 to become governor.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Alexandra |first=Rae |date=January 7, 2021 |title=Watch: That Time the Mayor Burned a Cage of Opium Outside SF City Hall |url=https://www.kqed.org/arts/13890853/watch-that-time-the-mayor-burned-a-cage-of-opium-outside-sf-city-hall |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230207083147/https://www.kqed.org/arts/13890853/watch-that-time-the-mayor-burned-a-cage-of-opium-outside-sf-city-hall |archive-date=February 7, 2023 |access-date=2024-07-09 |website=KQED.org |language=en}}</ref> Rolph remains the longest-serving mayor in San Francisco history.

==Life and career==
[[File:JamesRolphJr.jpg|thumb|left|Rolph during his tenure as [[Mayor of San Francisco]]]]
[[File:StateLibQld 1 133249 Annie M. Rolphe (ship).jpg|thumb|right|''Annie M. Rolph'' at dock]]
Rolph was born in San Francisco, the son of Margaret (née Nicol) and James Rolph.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Hon. James Rolph, Jr. - San Francisco, CA|url=http://www.onlinebiographies.info/ca/sf/rolph-j-jr.htm|access-date=2021-03-22|website=www.onlinebiographies.info}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8WzxAAAAMAAJ&q=Helen+Rolph+(Hosmer|title=Men and Women of Hawaii, 1954: A Biographical Encyclopedia of Persons of Notable Achievement, an Historical Account of the Peoples who Have Distinguished Themselves Through Personal Success and Through Public Service|date=1954|publisher=Honolulu Business Consultants|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Taylor|first=David Wooster|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZMIuAAAAIAAJ&q=%22Will+married+Helen+Hosmer+in+'95,+and+Jim+was+best+man.%22|title=The Life of James Rolph, Jr|date=1934|publisher=Committee for publication of the life of James Rolph, Jr.|language=en}}</ref> He had four brothers, including [[Thomas Rolph]], and two sisters.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.familysearch.org/auth/familysearch/login?returnUrl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.familysearch.org%2Ftree%2Fpedigree&display=tree|title=FamilySearch|website=www.familysearch.org|access-date=September 26, 2019}}</ref> After attending school in the [[Mission District, San Francisco, California|Mission District]], he went to work as an office boy in a commission house. He married Annie Marshall Reid (1872–1956) and had at least one son: James Rolph III (1904–1980).

Rolph entered the shipping business in 1900 by forming a partnership with George Hind. Over the next decade, he served as president of two banks, one of which he helped establish. Although he was asked to run for mayor in 1909, he chose to wait until [[1911 San Francisco mayoral election|1911]] to run for mayor—a position that he would hold for nineteen years. As mayor, he was known as "Sunny Jim", and his theme song was "There Are Smiles That Make You Happy". In 1915, he appeared as himself in an early documentary film titled ''[[Mabel and Fatty Viewing the World's Fair at San Francisco]]'', which starred [[Roscoe Arbuckle|Fatty Arbuckle]] and [[Mabel Normand]] and was directed by Arbuckle. In 1924, Rolph appeared as himself in a [[Slim Summerville]] comedy short film, ''Hello, 'Frisco''.

Rolph knew of the power in San Francisco of the [[Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco|Roman Catholic Church]]. Italians, Irish, French and Germans made up the majority of the population of the city. He established a deep friendship with Archbishop [[Edward Joseph Hanna]].

In addition to his mayoral duties and overseeing his shipping interests, he directed the Ship Owners and Merchants Tugboat Company and the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce. He also was vice-president of the [[Panama–Pacific International Exposition]] and president of the [[Merchants Exchange Building (San Francisco)|Merchants' Exchange]]. He resigned in 1931 to assume the office of governor of California.

Rolph received considerable criticism for publicly praising the citizens of [[San Jose, California|San Jose]] following the November 1933 [[lynching]] of the confessed kidnapper-murderers of [[Brooke Hart]], a local department store heir, while promising to [[pardon]] anyone involved, thereby earning the nickname "Governor Lynch."<ref name="Dreams">{{cite book | title=Endangered Dreams: The Great Depression in California | author=Kevin Starr | author-link=Kevin Starr | location=New York | publisher=Oxford University Press | year=1996 | isbn=0195100808 | url-access=registration | url=https://archive.org/details/endangereddreams00star }}</ref>{{rp|98}} Four days before the lynching, he had announced he would not call on the [[National Guard (United States)|National Guard]] to prevent the lynching, which was already being discussed locally.<ref name="Dreams" />{{rp|149}}

After violence erupted during the [[San Joaquin cotton strike]] in October 1933, Governor Rolph appointed a fact-finding committee to investigate the deaths of several strikers. When the committee met in [[Visalia, California|Visalia]] on October 19, 1933, [[Caroline Decker]], a labor activist who had taken part in other California agricultural actions, took testimony from the strikers who testified about the growers' assaults on striking workers.

==Death==
After suffering several heart attacks, Rolph died in [[Santa Clara County, California|Santa Clara County]] on June 2, 1934, aged 64, three years into his term. He was the second California governor to die in office, the first being [[Washington Bartlett]] in 1887. Rolph is buried at [[Greenlawn Memorial Park (Colma, California)|Greenlawn Memorial Park]] in [[Colma, California]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Smookler |first=Michael |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jfEo-rCwM7YC |title=Colma |date=2007 |publisher=Arcadia Publishing |isbn=978-0-7385-4727-5 |pages=68 |language=en}}</ref> He was succeeded as governor by Lieutenant Governor [[Frank Merriam]].

==Legacy==
On September 7, 1934, the California Toll Bridge Authority passed a resolution "that...the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge be dedicated as a lasting memorial to the memory of James Rolph Jr."<ref>"Rolph Bridge! Span Named for Governor," San Francisco Examiner, September 8, 1934, p. 6., Newspapers.com. The headline is a misnomer. The article quotes the full resolution, which never mentions naming in any way.</ref><ref>{{cite web|author1=<nowiki>Business, Transportation and Housing Agency</nowiki>|author2=Department of Transportation |title=2008 Named Freeways, Highways, Structures and Other Appurtenances in California |url=http://www.dot.ca.gov/hq/tsip/hseb/products/Named_Freeways.pdf |publisher=State of California |date=January 2009 |access-date=24 October 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121014034335/http://www.dot.ca.gov/hq/tsip/hseb/products/Named_Freeways.pdf |archive-date=October 14, 2012 }} Notes on p. 126 that the Bay Bridge is "unofficially dedicated to James R. Rolph."</ref>

A 1993 survey of historians, political scientists and urban experts conducted by Melvin G. Holli of the [[University of Illinois at Chicago]] ranked Rolph as the twenty-third-best American big-city mayor to have served between the years 1820 and 1993.<ref>{{Cite book | last = Holli | first = Melvin G. | title = The American Mayor | publisher = PSU Press | year = 1999 | location = University Park | url = https://archive.org/details/americanmayorbes0000holl | isbn = 0-271-01876-3 }}</ref>

==See also==
* [[1911 San Francisco mayoral election]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* Chan, Loren B. "California During the Early 1930s: The Administration of Governor James Rolph, Jr., 1931-1934." ''Southern California Quarterly'' 63.3 (1981): 262-282. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/41170950 online]
* Htnes, William M. "Our American mayors XVI. James Rolph, Jr., of San Francisco." ''National Municipal Review'' 18.3 (1929): 163-167. https://doi.org/10.1002/ncr.4110180304
* Leikin, Steve. "Governor James Rolph And The Great Depression In California." ''California History'' 84.4 (2007): 79-81.
* Segal, Morley. "James Rolph, Jr., and the Early Days of the San Francisco Municipal Railway." ''California Historical Society Quarterly'' 43.1 (1964): 3-18. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/25155613 online]
* Starr, Kevin. ''Endangered Dreams: The Great Depression in California'' (1996).
* Worthen, James. ''Governor James Rolph and the Great Depression in California'' (McFarland, 2010).

==External links==
{{Commons category}}
{{Portal|San Francisco Bay Area}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20040806113556/http://www.governor.ca.gov/govsite/govsgallery/h/biography/governor_27.html Biography from the State of California]
*[http://politicalgraveyard.com/bio/rollyson-romaldus.html#RHS0JWWJQ James Rolph, Jr.] at [[The Political Graveyard]]
*[http://www.sfmuseum.org/hist1/rolph.html Biography from the Virtual Museum of the City of San Francisco]
* {{IMDb name|1217780}}

{{s-start}}
{{s-off}}
{{s-bef|before=[[P. H. McCarthy]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Mayor of San Francisco]]|years=1912–1931}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Angelo Joseph Rossi|Angelo Rossi]]}}
|-
{{s-bef|before=[[C. C. Young]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Governor of California]]|years=1931–1934}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Frank Merriam]]}}
|-
{{s-bef|before=[[John Garland Pollard]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=Chair of the [[National Governors Association]]|years=1933–1934}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Paul V. McNutt]]}}
|-
{{s-ppo}}
{{s-bef|before=[[C. C. Young]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] nominee for [[Governor of California]]|years=[[1930 California gubernatorial election|1930]]}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Frank Merriam]]}}
{{s-end}}

{{SFMayors}}
{{Governors of California}}
{{National Governors Association chairs}}
{{Lynching in the United States}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rolph, James}}
[[Category:1869 births]]
[[Category:1934 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century mayors of places in California]]
[[Category:American Episcopalians]]
[[Category:Republican Party governors of California]]
[[Category:Mayors of San Francisco]]
[[Category:Politicians from San Francisco]]
[[Category:American bank presidents]]
[[Category:American businesspeople in shipping]]
[[Category:American pro-lynching activists]]

James Rolph - Revision history

imported>Funandtrvl: /* Life and career */ Fixed grammar