J. Millard Tawes, the fifty-ninth elected Governor of Maryland
was born April 8, 1894, in Crisfield, Somerset County, Maryland, a
son of James B. and Alice Byrd Tawes. He is married to the former
Helen Avalynne Gibson. They have a son, Philip W. Tawes, and a
daughter, Mrs. William R, Wilson, Jr., and four grandchildren, the
three sons of Mr. and Mrs. Philip W. Tawes and the daughter of
Mr. and Mrs. Wilson.

Governor Tawes was educated in the public schools of Somerset
County, at the Wilmington Conference Academy in Dover, Delaware,
and at the Sadler's, Bryant, and Stratton Business College, where
he specialized in the study of banking and accountancy.

Governor Tawes has honorary degrees as follows: the University
of Maryland, 1959, (LL.D.); Washington College, Chestertown, Mary-
land, 1959, (LL.D.); Morgan State College, 1959, (LL.D.); and Mount
St. Mary's College, Emmitsburg, Maryland, (LL.D.).

He began his career in business with lumbering and canning firms
founded and owned by his father. He continued this association with
his father, and later his brothers, as the family's business enterprises
were extended into shipbuilding, baking, and banking.

He was secretary and treasurer of the Crisfield Shipbuilding Com-
pany, was vice-president and treasurer of the Tawes Baking Company,
was associated in the management of the Tawes-Gibson Lumber
Company and the Tawes-Gibson Packing Company, and is a director
of the Bank of Crisfield.

The Governor is a Methodist and has been active in church work
from his early youth. For many years, he taught the Men's Bible
Class at Immanuel Methodist Church in Crisfield, of which he is
a member. He was a delegate to the 1952 General Conference of the
Methodist Church held in San Francisco and formerly was treasurer
of the Wilmington Conference Education Society, Incorporated.

His active career in politics spreads over more than three decades,
beginning in 1930 when he was elected Clerk of the Circuit Court for
Somerset County. After two terms in this office (1930-38), he was
elected Comptroller of the Treasury in his first State-wide election
campaign in 1938. In 1942 he ran again without opposition in the
primary and won a second four-year term in the general election.

These eight years were the first part of an interrupted career of
seventeen years in the office of State Comptroller. During that period,
due to the growth in population and the broad expansion of State
activities, the office personnel increased from one hundred to five
hundred employees.

In May, 1947, Governor Lane appointed him State Bank Commis-
sioner, a position he held until he was appointed State Comptroller
on July 5, 1950, to fill the unexpired term of the late James J. Lacy.
He was re-elected Comptroller, without primary or Republican oppo-
sition, in 1950 and again in 1954.