Aldo Charles Poletti

Charles Poletti was born in Barre, Vermont on 2 July, 1903, one of four children of Italian immigrants Dino Poletti (1865-1922) (a stonecutter in a Barre granite quarry from Pogno, provincia di Novara, Piemonte, Italy) and Carolina Gervasini (1868, Varese, provincia di Lombardia–1923). Dino migrated to the USA in 1892, giving his occupation as 'hatter',  settling first in Hallowell and then in Barre in 1896. The family returned to and from Italy in 1901. In Barre, the family lived on Howard Street. His siblings--Myra (born Maria Italia Natalina) (1894-1900); Adele 'Delini' (1899-1909); and Aurelio (1897-1897)--all died young. At home the family spoke Italian and local dialects. In 1913, when Charles was 10, the family returned to Italy for some time, in the hope that his father's health would improve. As a child he joined the Italian Baptist church, founded in Barre by Ariel Bellondi in 1899, as part of the Baptist Home Mission work among 'the anarchists and socialists' in the town. Scalise (2006: 141) attributes to the Church on Brook Street (designed by Bellondi in the style of a country chapel common in his native Italy), the successful Americanization process which underpinned the success of the children of Italian immigrants such as Poletti. The church struggled, however with few members and insufficient resources. In 1916, the leader of the Italian Baptist cause in the eastern USA, Antonio Mangano, attempted to revive it after Bellondi returned to Italy, and his replacement failed to turn the church around. The anti-clerical and socialist strength in the town, however, saw his lecture series fail, and the cause limp along until it faded from existence. Given his interests later in life, however, one can imagine that the young Charles Poletti may have been in the audience for visits by Mangano and other ministers. (Heller 2010) Poletti graduated from Spaulding High School in 1920, where he succeeded in academics, public speaking, as a class president, and various school activities (such as cheerleader). He worked during his school years at the Union Co-operative store on Granite Street, where his father had twice been President. Only two years after matriculating his father died (in Barre). His mother died in Italy the next year. Initially planning to manage a bakery, he was encouraged by his principal to attend college. He attended Harvard University on a scholarship, financing his studies through part-time jobs. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa and summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics in 1924 and was admitted to Phi Beta Kappa. He also studied at the University of Rome (on the Eleanora Duse fellowship, 1924-25), the University of Bologna and the University of Madrid (1928). In 1928, he earned a LL.B. degree cum laude from Harvard Law School: he would later be awarded LL.D degrees from the Universities of Rome and Palermo, and sit on the Board of Overseers at Harvard University.

After passing the Bar, Poletti joined the New York City firm of John W. Davis (Davis, Polk, Wardell, Gardiner and Reed), the 1924 Democratic presidential nominee, where he worked from 1929-33. He was active in the 1928 presidential campaign of Governor Alfred E. Smith. In 1932, he became counsel to the Democratic National Committee and in 1933, he was appointed counsel to Governor Herbert H. Lehman (1933-37). Lehman relied heavily on Poletti, assigning him tasks from drafting legislation and speeches to lobbying for passage of New Deal measures.

On 2 June 1934, at H. E. Fosdick's fashionable Riverside Baptist Church, Poletti married Jean Knox Ellis, daughter of J. William Ellis and Mary Shattuck of Buffalo, New York. Jean had graduated from Vassar, and was working as head of the women's advertising department in Bamberger's huge department store on Market Street in downtown Newark. She had been active in church and educational work, including the Grenfel Mission, Newfoundland (summer 1924); a teacher in schools in Cambridge MA and Rye NY. They would have three children, the oldest being Carla Knox.  

In 1935 he returned to Barre to attend his class reunion. In 1937, Lehman appointed Poletti to a vacancy as a Justice of the New York State Supreme Court, and later that year, he was elected to a full 14-year term. Barre newspapers chuckled at the fact that the eminent 'Charles' had always been known as "Aldo" when growing up in Barre, 'a little, chunky, good-natured boy who made friends easily, who starred in classroom and school activities, who gave promise of marked progress in his chosen profession, the Law.' During the New York Mayoralty elections in 1937, there was the suggestion that Poletti would step down from the bench and join the government of Franklin D. Roosevelt, sparking an internal battle in the Democratic Party. (Daily News, 20 Sep 1937: 29) 

In 1938, Poletti was inducted as Lieutenant Governor of New York (serving 1939-41). In 1939, he was elected to the board of directors of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. In 1940, he advocated for the integration of Major League Baseball while opening the season of the Negro National League. He lost his bid for reelection as lieutenant governor in 1942 but succeeded to the governorship on December 3, 1942, when Lehman resigned, serving in an acting position for 29 days. As governor, he controversially pardoned three convicts with ties to labour unions. He also supported Italian community involvement in War Bonds drives, was Chair of various community organizations such as (before the War) the "Italian Emergency Committee" which sought to raise awareness of the propaganda activities of the Italian Fascist government in the USA, and (during the War) the 'Defense Savings Committee for Americans of Italian Origin.'

After leaving office, Poletti was appointed special assistant to Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson. He worked to racially integrate the military. In 1943, he declined a proffered commission as colonel until he had earned it, being made a lieutenant colonel in April 1943, and landing in Sicily a few days after the invasion. At first a U.S. Army civil affairs officer in Italy, responsible for rebuilding and restoring democracy, he served as Military Governor of Sicily, Naples, Rome, Milan, and Lombardy. He broadcast a radio address in Italian, urging the Italian people to "throw out both Hitler and Mussolini" and in the areas where he was governor pressed for defascistization, though had to deal with the fact that often former fascisti were the only capable administrators available in some areas. The rapid movement of the armed forces could create difficult situations. 'In one case, the military left immediately after liberating the town of Favara, Sicily, leaving Poletti the sole American in a town that had been hostile only minutes before.' (LaGumina 2006: 225) His reliance on local leaders, and the appearance of Vito Genovese, Lucky Luciano and others in his areas of responsibility (Genovese on his immediate staff) have raised the prospect for some that Poletti was a liaison in the broader Allied plan to use Mafia figures to pave the way for the invasion (Robb 1996). It is important to filter out the various 'reconstructions' of history by Italian commentators at the time (e.g. Walter Audisio's assertion that Poletti had personally approved the killing of Mussolini and Achille Starace). (Daily News 31 Mar 1947, p. 338) Others suggest that while Poletti was pragmatic and had connections with people like Generoso Pope, he was also inflappably friendly with everyone and in Sicily and Naples in particular needed to work with what he had. He was honest, hard working and personable - and most importantly, he spoke Italian. (Diggins 1972: 424) Poletti was later awarded the US Legion of Merit and various Italian government honours for his service in Italy.

After World War II, Poletti became the senior partner in a Manhattan law firm Poletti, Freiden, Prashker, Feldman & Gartner). From 1946 to 1947, he was an arbitrator for labour disputes in New York City's clothing industry. From 1955 to 1960, he served on the New York State Power Authority. He was the executive (Vice President) responsible for foreign exhibits at the 1964 New York World's Fair. (He was part of the delegation which travelled to Spain to encourage Franco to participate). (Daily News, 17 Feb 1965: 99) He was various a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Council Against Intolerance in America,  the advisory committee of the Italian Welfare League, various bar associations, etc. Later in life he moved to the Presbyterian church, and was a deacon. 

During the rise of her husband's career, Jean too was an active leader in many organizations, such as the US Commission for UNICEF and the Girls Club of America, and an executive in state (1934, 1946, 1954, 1958) and national (1940, 1944, 1952, 1956) Democratic Party campaigns. She was also a Trustee of Vassar, and a member of the Vassar Club. She died in 1974. The next year Charles remarried (to Elizabeth).

Poletti retired to Marco Island, Florida in 1965. He died in Florida (Marco Island, Collier County) at the age of 99 on 8 August 2002, and was buried in Elizabethtown. By his own request there were no church services, and contributions in lieu of flowers were requested for the Adirondack Nature Conservancy. He was survived by his second wife, Elizabeth, his son Charles Ellis (a medical doctor in Avon, CT), Carla Knox (married Kyril Ralph Tidmarsh, who she met when working for the ILO in Geneva, and they settled in Mies, Switzerland), and Joanna Shattuck (married name Todisco, of Marco Island). 

Awards and Honours:

• Legion of Merit

• Order of Saint Gregory the Great

• Knight of the Grand Cross of the Crown of Italy

• Officer of the Order of the British Empire

• Order of the Star of Jordan

• Grand Officer of the Order of Saint Agatha of San Marino The Charles Poletti Power Project was renamed in his honour in 1982.

Sources

Ancestry.com

Diggins, John, Mussolini and Fascism: The View from America (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1972)

Gasser, W. D., et. al. (eds.), Who's who in Commerce and Industry, vol. 14, (Chicago: Marquis, 1963), p. 1044.

Heller, Paul, 'Preaching the Gospel to Anarchists and Socialists: Baptist Missionaries in Barre, 1899–1916', Vermont History 78.2 (Summer/Fall 2010): 196–207.

LaGumina, Salvatore, The Humble and the Heroic: Wartime Italian Americans (Youngstown: Cambria Press, 2006).

Robb, Peter, Midnight in Sicily (Duffy & Snellgrove, Sydney, 1996)

Scalise, Charles J, 'Retrieving the "WIPS": Exploring the assimilation of white Italian Protestants in America',  Italian Americana 24.2 (Summer 2006): 133-146.