Some Presidential Lasts

Daniel G. Jennings

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Nov 28, 2020 · 2 min read

As America prepares to welcome a new president, it is time to look back at some presidential lasts.

Some interesting presidential lasts include:

1. Last President to wear facial hair, a mustache William Howard Taft (R-Ohio), 1909–1913. Taft famously wore a handlebar mustache. No chief executive since Taft has worn facial hair. Interestingly, no major presidential nominee has had facial hair since Governor Thomas E. Dewey (R-New York) in 1948 who wore a mustache. Notably, Dewey lost the election.
2. Last President to wear a beard; Benjamin Harrison (R-Indiana) 1889–1893.
3. Last President to wear glasses; Harry S. Truman (D-Missouri) 1945–1953.
4. Last President not to graduate from college; Harry S. Truman (D-Missouri) 1945–1953. Truman attended night school but never studied at a formal college.
5. Last President not to attend an Ivy League University. Ronald Reagan (R-California) 1981–1989. Reagan attended Eureka College, a small liberal arts school in Illinois. Note: incoming President Joe Biden (D-Delaware) attended the University of Delaware.
6. Last President to fight in a war. George H.W. Bush (R-Texas) 1989–1993. Bush I was a Navy flier in World War II. Note; Bush’s son George W. Bush (R-Texas) served in the Air National Guard during the Vietnam War but saw no combat.
7. Last President to serve in the regular military. Jimmy Carter (D-Georgia) 1977–1981. Carter served in the US Navy after graduating from the U.S. Naval Academy. Carter later left the service to run the family peanut farm but stayed in the Naval Reserve.
8. Last President to serve in the military. Again, George W. Bush (R-Texas) 2001–2009). Bush flew fighter planes for the Air National Guard.
9. Last President to fight in the Civil War. William McKinley (R-Ohio) 1897–1901.
10. Last President to serve as an enlisted man in the US military; William McKinley (R-Ohio) 1897–1901. McKinley enlisted in the Union Army as a private but rose to the rank of major.
11. Last President born in the 19th Century; Dwight D. Eisenhower (R-Kansas) 1953–1961. Ike was born in 1890. His successor, John F. Kennedy (D-Massachusetts) was born in 1917.

There are many presidential lasts. However, these lasts stand out to me.