Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt's (1858-1919) dynamism dominated American politics from 1900 until World War I. the 26th president of the USA Noted conservationist, established the National Wildlife Refuge program, and federal control over public lands of the West. A sickly child, but devoted himself to vigorous exercise, gaining physical stamina, love of sports. One of the leading field biologists of his day.Attended Harvard where he lost the sight in one eye. He graduated in 1880, married Alice Hathaway Lee. In 1881 elected to the New York State Assembly, a leader of Republicans.After his wife and mother died on Valentine's Day 1884, Roosevelt headed to the Dakotas where the isolation of the Badlands helped him escape misfortunes, pursued his writings. In 1886, he married his childhood sweetheart, Edith Kermit Carow, and continued his literary career from home, Sagamore Hill, Oyster Bay on Long Island. Returned to politics a reformist in 1889, serving on the U.S. Civil Service Commission. In 1895, New York City Police Commissioner. In 1897 appointed Assistant Secretary of the Navy, a leading proponent of war with Spain. When war came in 1898, Roosevelt resigned from government and organized the "Rough Riders," in a much-publicized charge up Kettle Hill near San Juan, Puerto Rico. A hero, elected governor of New York in 1898,then ran as the Republican Party's vice presidential candidate in 1900. On September 14, 1901, the assassination of President McKinley made the 43-year-old Roosevelt the youngest President in history, promoting reforms. Known as a "Trust Buster," via the Sherman Anti-Trust Act to break up some large corporations, in the railroad and steel industries. Acting under the Forest Reserves Act of 1891, he set aside 235 million acres of public timberland as national forests. The National Reclamation Act of 1902 authorized irrigation projects in 16 semiarid states. Roosevelt initiated the construction of western dams, and reclaiming the desert Southwest. By Proclamation, he set aside 800,000 acres in Arizona as the Grand Canyon National Monument. His National Park Service paved the way for federal management of "national treasures" Roosevelt declined to run for another term as President, deferring to William Howard Taft in 1908. He undertook a "peacemaking" tour of Europe, which earned him the Nobel peace prize. After World War I, Roosevelt was poised to make another run for the White House, but on January 6, 1919, he unexpectedly died in his sleep at home in Sagamore Hill.

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