© 2025 United Nations Association - Minnesota Chapter
United Nations Association
of Minnesota
Dedicated to educating, inspiring and mobilizing Minnesotans to support the principles and vital work of the United Nations and its Agencies.
Governor Harold E. Stassen
The UNA-Minnesota chapter is named after Governor Harold Stassen, internationalist and signer of the UN Charter on behalf of the United States. He was the 25th, and youngest, governor of Minnesota at the age of 32. Mr. Stassen was a naval officer in WWll, and lead the Navy’s prisoner evacuation program in Japan. In 1945, he was appointed by President Roosevelt to be a delegate to the United Nations Charter Conference in San Francisco.
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In August 1943, after training and promotion to Commander, Stassen joined the staff of Admiral William F. (Bull) Halsey, Commander South Pacific Force. He served with Halsey for two years as Assistant Chief of Staff (Administration), Aide and Flag Secretary, participating in south Pacific campaigns and the 1944–45 operations of the Third Fleet. Beginning in April 1945, he had additional duty as a delegate to the conference that drafted the United Nations' Charter. Detached from the Third Fleet in September 1945 and soon promoted to Commander, Captain Stassen's final active Navy service was at the Navy Department in Washington, D.C. He left active duty in November 1945.
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Following World War II, Harold Stassen returned to politics. In 1948, he was a candidate for the Republican Party nomination for President. Though he lost that contest, he continued to regularly offer himself for the Nation's highest office, last making a run in 1992. He was President of the University of Pennsylvania during the late 1940s and early 1950s and served in the administration of President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Stassen subsequently ran for the offices of Governor of Pennsylvania and Mayor of Philadelphia, and maintained a law practice. Harold E. Stassen died at Bloomington, Minnesota, on 4 March 2001
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Before passing away 4 March 2001 in Bloomington, MN, he participated in various professional associations such as the Committee on Constitutional Aspects of International Agreements of the American Bar Association, the Crusade for Freedom, and the U.S. Interreligious Committee on Peace.
Commander Harold Stassen, 1944, Aide to Fleet Commander, 3rd Fleet, Admiral William F. (Bull) Halsey
Minnesota Governor, Harold E. Stassen, 1939 - 1943
The visionary life of Harold Stassen, Minnesota's youngest governor at age 32, negotiator and one of 7 US signors of the UN Charter, President University of Pennsylvania
Harold E Stassen Award
The UNA-MN Board of Directors established the Harold E. Stassen Award in 2016 as the highest award the organization presents to a person of exceptional commitment and service to the association and/or like-minded organizations and/or the United Nations.
Past Recipients include: Mr. Jay Shahidi, Mr. Mark Ritchie, Mr. Stuart Ackman, Mr. James (Jim) Nelson, Congressman Arlen Erdahl, Dr. Joseph Schwartzberg, Representative Emily Ann Tuttle, Ambassador Robert Flaten, Ms. Leila Poulada, Ms. Diane Clayton, and Ms. Heather Branigin.