Biography

03/10/1893 - 05/18/1965

George Kunkel (D15) Dauphin County 1937-1940

Early Life:

George Kunkel, born March 10, 1893, Harrisburg, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania; son of Judge George and Mary Minster Kunkel; public school education; Harrisburg Academy; Franklin and Marshall College, 1915; attended three years, Harvard Law School, 1915, 1916, 1917; American Expeditionary Force (AEF), France, WWI, 1917-1919 resumed study, law, Dickinson Law School, Carlisle, Pennsylvania, A. M., LL. В., 1920; admitted, Dauphin County bar, 1920; attorney; private law practice, Harrisburg; elected, Democrat, Pennsylvania State Senate, 1937-1940; minority democrat, Dauphin County Commissioners Board, five terms; Dauphin County Democratic Chairman; died, May 18, 1965 (aged 72), Harrisburg Hospital, heart, Harrisburg, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania; interment, Harrisburg Cemetery, Harrisburg, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania.  

Early Life:

Officers' Training Camp, Fort Niagara, New York; commissioned, second lieutenant, 1917; sent to Camp Meade, Maryland, assigned, 30th Machine Gun Battalion, nine months; overseas, Seventy-ninth Division, American Expeditionary Force (AEF), July 1918, active during the Meuse-Argonne offensive; promoted, first lieutenant, served, ten months, France. Returned, United States, June 1919, honorably discharged.

Pennsylvania Politics:

Elected, Democrat, Pennsylvania State Senate, 15th district, Dauphin County, 1937-1940.

Minority democrat, Dauphin County Commissioners Board, five terms; Dauphin County Democratic Chairman.

Legacy:

First democrat elected Harrisburg, Pennsylvania State Senate, eighty years.  

Second cousin, John Crain Kunkel, United States House of Representatives, 1939-1951, 1961-1967.  

Cited:

Cox, Harold. "Senate Members K". Wilkes University Election Statistics Project. Wilkes University.

Wilkes-Barre Times Leader, the Evening News (Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania) · Wednesday, May 19, 1965 · Page 6.

George Kunkel (1893-1965) - Find a Grave Memorial