Marion Hawthorne Hedges

1985

Marion Hedges was born September 14, 1888, in Winamac, Indiana. He graduated from Winamac High School before coming to DePauw University. In addition to helping found Sigma Delta Chi at DePauw, he was junior editor, then editor-in-chief of the DePauw Daily and editor-in-chief of the Mirage in his junior year. He was also in the Deutsche Bund, Kappa Tau Kappa and the Press Club, was president of his sophomore class and was a member of Phi Gamma Delta fraternity. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1910 and the yearbook of that year says, “Nothing hinders me or daunts me.”

After graduation Hedges served as instructor of English composition until 1911. He then became professor of English at Iowa Wesleyan College in 1912 and then at Beloit from 1913-1920. He earned a master’s degree from Harvard in 1912.

From 1920-1924 he served as a reporter for the Minneapolis Star. In 1924 he went to Washington, D.C. where he was research director of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. During the 25 years he held this position, he was also editor of the Electrical Workers’ Journal.

In 1935 Hedges served as technical advisor to the American delegation to the International Labor Conference in Geneva, Switzerland. He was a founder and vice chairman of the National Planning Association and in 1948 was honored as its first recipient of a gold medal awarded for outstanding contribution to the science of planning. He also served as a labor information specialist with the Social Security Board in its first 10 years of operation and later was a special consultant to the Tennessee Valley Authority.

Hedges was the author of two novels, Iron City and Governor Minturn, and wrote several works on labor and industry. He died in 1959 in Chevy Chase, Maryland.