Joseph Raymond McCarthy Born in 1958 near Appleton, Wisconsin attended the Underhill School, where he completed eighth grade. At his teenage he started his own chicken business, but disease wiped out his flock. He broke the business and joined as a clerk in an Appleton grocery store, quickly becoming manager.
In 1929, McCarthy was transferred to Manawa to manage a new grocery store. While there, he entered Little Wolf High School, completing the four-year curriculum in nine months. McCarthy''s excellent grades enabled him to attend Marquette University in Milwaukee, which he entered in the fall of 1930.
In school, he coached boxing, and was elected president of his law school class, all while working a series of part-time jobs. Immediately after gaining his law degree in 1935, McCarthy opened a practice in Waupaca. He later joined a law firm in Shawano, becoming a partner in 1937.
In July, 1942, shortly after the start of World War II, McCarthy took a leave of absence from his judicial office and was commissioned a first lieutenant in the Marines. As an intelligence officer stationed in the Pacific, he participated in combat bombing missions. While still on active duty in 1944, McCarthy challenged incumbent Alexander Wiley for the Republican nomination to the U.S. Senate, but was soundly defeated. In April, 1945, having resigned his military commission, McCarthy was re-elected without opposition to the circuit court. He immediately began planning for the 1946 Senate campaign.
In the general election, McCarthy easily defeated his Democratic opponent and elected as a Senator in 1947. As a Senator, He was active in labor-management issues, with a reputation as a moderate Republican. He fought against continuation of wartime price controls, especially on sugar. He supported the Taft-Hartley Act over Truman's veto, angering labor unions in Wisconsin but solidifying his business base.
With Republicans taking control of the Senate in 1953, McCarthy became chairman of the Committee on Government Operations and the subcommittee on investigations. In August, 1954, a Senate committee was formed to investigate censuring McCarthy. On September27, the committee released a unanimous report calling McCarthy''s behaviour as a committee chairman "inexcusable," "reprehensible," "vulgar and insulting." On December 2, 1954, the full Senate, by a vote of 67-22, passed a resolution condemning McCarthy for abusing his power as a senator.
Later years he seemed to lose his sense of humour. Always a heavy drinker, McCarthy''s drinking increased to dangerous levels, especially after the Senate''s actions against him. He died of acute hepatitis in 1957.
Ref: www.wikipedia.org