A Colonel from New York

Theodore Roosevelt is mostly remembered as the twenty-sixth President of the United States, but this dynamic, multi-talented, charismatic man became a hero to millions of Americans for many other reasons. By the time he rose to the presidency at age 42—still the youngest person ever to hold the office—Roosevelt already had served as a New York State Assemblyman, a deputy sheriff in the Dakota Territory, Police Commissioner of New York City, U.S. Civil Service Commissioner, Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Colonel of the Rough Riders, Governor of New York, and Vice President.

Among Roosevelt’s key accomplishments as a conservationist are the establishment of federal protection for almost 230 million acres of land, 150 national forests, 51 federal bird reservations, five national parks, and 18 national monuments.

Among his foreign policy accomplishments are issue a corollary to the Monroe Doctrine allowing the US to exercise international policy power to intervene and keep smaller countries in the Americas on their feet; negotiation of US control of construction on the Panama Canal after supporting the secession of Panama from Colombia in 1903; sending the Great White Fleet on a tour to demonstrate American power and negotiation an end to the Russo-Japanese War, for which he won a Nobel Prize.