A Builder of the Great Society

W. Willard Wirtz (March 14, 1912-April 24, 2010) graduates from Harvard Law School and is hired to teach by future Supreme Court Justice Wiley B. Rutledge. While at Northwestern University, he instructs another future Supreme Court justice: John Paul Stevens. Wirtz rises in the political ranks writing campaign speeches and is appointed under secretary of labor in 1961. As secretary of labor, Wirtz is a proponent of collective bargaining. He champions department programs aimed at the young, under-educated, long-term unemployed and older workers. In conjunction with the Civil Rights Act of 1964, he implements antidiscrimination responsibilities for the department."