Sidney Preston Osborn (May 17, 1884 – May 25, 1948) was an American politician who was the first

secretary of state of Arizona The secretary of state of Arizona is an elected position in the U.S. state of Arizona. Since Arizona does not have a lieutenant governor, the secretary stands first in the line of succession to the governorship. The secretary also serves as act ...

, and later the seventh governor of Arizona and is, as of , the only governor of Arizona to be elected to four consecutive terms (Governors of Arizona served 2-year terms without limits until 1968, when it was changed to serve 4-year terms, and again in 1992 to a limit of two terms at a time). Osborn is also the second native-born governor of Arizona, preceded by

Thomas Edward Campbell Thomas Edward Campbell (January 18, 1878 – March 1, 1944) was the List of Governors of Arizona, second governor of the state of Arizona, United States. He was the first United States Republican Party, Republican and first native-born governor ...

Early years and political rise

Born May 17, 1884 in Phoenix Arizona, Osborn worked as a page for the

Arizona Territorial Legislature The Arizona Territorial Legislature was the legislative body of Arizona Territory. It was a bicameral legislature consisting of a lower house, the House of Representatives, and an upper house, the council. Created by the Arizona Organic Act, the l ...

in 1898, and later a secretary to the Congressional Delegate John Frank Wilson (1903–1905). For a time Osborn worked as a newspaper reporter and editor; later he served as a delegate to the Arizona state constitutional convention of 1910.

Career in the state of Arizona

Despite being elected three times as secretary of state by wide margins in the 1910s, Osborn had little political success for the next two decades. He lost two primaries for governor in

1924 Events January * January 12 – Gopinath Saha shoots Ernest Day, whom he has mistaken for Sir Charles Tegart, the police commissioner of Calcutta, and is arrested soon after. * January 20–January 30, 30 – Kuomintang in Ch ...

and 1938, and a Senate primary against Henry F. Ashurst in 1934. Despite a narrow primary win in 1940, his elections as a gubernatorial nominee never went below 60% of the vote. His governing style was no-nonsense. The best example occurred at the very beginning of his governorship: Upon taking office, Osborn had the state's top officials turn in a signed, but undated, resignation letter. If an official became an embarrassment to the state, Osborn would date the letter, and announce the official had resigned. During his fourth term, Osborn suffered from

Lou Gehrig's Disease Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as motor neuron disease (MND) or—in the United States—Lou Gehrig's disease (LGD), is a rare, terminal neurodegenerative disorder that results in the progressive loss of both upper and lo ...

and was hardly able to communicate with his staff. He eventually died in office in 1948 and was succeeded by Dan Garvey. Osborn was buried in Phoenix's Greenwood/Memory Lawn Mortuary & Cemetery. Despite numerous conceptions, Osborn Road in Phoenix was not named after Osborn. It was first named as such in 1900, after Governor Osborn's grandfather John Preston Osborn, when Governor Osborn was 16. John Preston and the Governor's father Neri Osborn both served in the territorial legislature.

References

Bibliography

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Osborn, Sidney Preston 1884 births 1948 deaths Deaths from motor neuron disease in Arizona Democratic Party governors of Arizona Politicians from Phoenix, Arizona 20th-century Arizona politicians