William Howard Taft
/ˌwɪljəm ˌhaʊəd ˈtæft/
/ˌwɪljəm ˌhaʊərd ˈtæft/
- (1857-1930) the 27th US President (1909-13). He was a Republican who had earlier been the US Secretary of War (1904). As President, he created the Department of Labor and continued the foreign policies of President Theodore Roosevelt. He was later Chief Justice of the Supreme Court (1921-30), and is the only person to have been the head of two different divisions of the US government.