Named TIME's Man of the Year for the years 1932, 1934 and 1941, Roosevelt was elected president of the United States four times, inaugurated in 1933 and served until his death in 1945. Despite often having severe difficulty walking due to polio contracted early in his political career, Teddy's cousin won the governorship of New York. He was the first governor to state publicly that government had an obligation to the jobless, a concern that carried over into his presidency.
There his New Deal policies, which included establishing Social Security, banking and securities reform, agricultural price supports and minimum wage, placed government at the service of the ordinary American. Roosevelt also led the nation through World War II and helped lay the foundation for the United Nations. TIME described the President's signing of the Lend Lease Act and the Declaration of War as "two acts that made the nation and the man pre-eminent." (1/5/42)
Researched by Joan Levinstein, the Time Inc. Research Center