Shapiro, Samuel H. (Samuel Harvey), 1907-1987

Samuel Harvey Shapiro (born Israel Shapiro; April 25, 1907 – March 16, 1987) was a Russian-born American lawyer and politician. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the 34th Governor of Illinois from 1968 to 1969.

Born in the Governorate of Estonia of the Russian Empire, he emigrated to the United States as an infant, settling in Kankakee, Illinois. He took classes at St. Viator College and the University of Illinois, where he earned a law degree. After graduating, he entered private practice in Kankakee. In 1936, Shapiro won election as state’s attorney (county prosecutor) of Kankakee County. During World War II, he served as an anti-submarine expert. From 1947 to 1961, Shapiro served in the Illinois State House of Representatives, where he took a special interest in mental health issues, sponsoring bills to raise standards in state hospitals.

Twice elected lieutenant governor under Otto Kerner, in 1960 and 1964, Shapiro stepped up to the governorship in May 1968 when Kerner became a judge. He ran at once for a full term of his own. Not well known downstate and hindered by the 1968 Democratic convention riots in Chicago, he was narrowly defeated by Republican Richard B. Ogilvie. He then returned to private life, although he was called upon several times to serve on special commissions, the most significant of which was a commission to redraw state electoral boundaries in 1981. Shapiro continued to work as an attorney until his death. He is buried in Jewish Waldheim Cemetery in Forest Park, Illinois.