George Edward Akerson was a U.S. journalist

Journalist

A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...

, and the first official White House Press Secretary

White House Press Secretary

The White House Press Secretary is a senior White House official whose primary responsibility is to act as spokesperson for the government administration....

.

Early life

Akerson was born in Minneapolis

Minneapolis, Minnesota

Minneapolis , nicknamed "City of Lakes" and the "Mill City," is the county seat of Hennepin County, the largest city in the U.S. state of Minnesota, and the 48th largest in the United States...

, Minnesota

Minnesota

Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...

. He attended the University of Minnesota

University of Minnesota

The University of Minnesota, Twin Cities is a public research university located in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, United States. It is the oldest and largest part of the University of Minnesota system and has the fourth-largest main campus student body in the United States, with 52,557...

, taking classes in Science, Literature and Art. After leaving there, he received a job at the Minneapolis Tribune. In 1910 Akerson started at Harvard University

Harvard University

Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

, later receiving a BA

Bachelor's degree

A bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for three or four years, but can range anywhere from two to six years depending on the region of the world...

 in Political Science

Political science

Political Science is a social science discipline concerned with the study of the state, government and politics. Aristotle defined it as the study of the state. It deals extensively with the theory and practice of politics, and the analysis of political systems and political behavior...

 in 1912. Akerson married Harriet Blake, a Wellesley College graduate, on June 28, 1915.

White House Press Secretary

He served as White House Press Secretary in the Hoover Administration

Herbert Hoover

Herbert Clark Hoover was the 31st President of the United States . Hoover was originally a professional mining engineer and author. As the United States Secretary of Commerce in the 1920s under Presidents Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge, he promoted partnerships between government and business...

 from 1929 to 1931. His appointment was the first official one to that post.

During Akerson's tenure of office the White House

White House

The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...

 experienced increasing difficulties in its relations with the press corps. In 1931 Hoover decided to replace Akerson with Theodore Goldsmith Joslin

Theodore Goldsmith Joslin

Theodore Goldsmith "Ted" Joslin was press secretary to President Herbert Hoover from 1931 until 1933.-Background:Joslin was born in Leominster, Massachusetts, to Frederick A. and Hanna Hopgood Joslin. After graduating from high school, he took a job with the Boston bureau of the Associated Press...

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