Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Roosevelt served as Assistant Secretary of the Navy from 1913-1920 under President Woodrow Wilson. As part of his duties, Roosevelt had the unpleasant task of sending out letters to hopeful candidates who, for any one of several reasons, were being denied admission to the Naval Academy at Annapolis. One of those candidates was Bernhardt Luvig Nelson , a young teenage academic whiz from the Borough of Brooklyn, who had already secured the required senatorial recommendation from his New York State Senator. However, a report from the medical examiner left Roosevelt no choice but to deny Bernie's application because the loss of sight in his right eye, caused by a piece of glass years earlier, rendered Bernie unqualified to attend the Naval Academy.

Later on in his political career Roosevelt became the Governor of Bernie's state of New York before becoming the President of Bernie's beloved country. When Roosevelt was President he instituted the Works Progress Administration (WPA) program in the 1930's, and it provided Bernie with the opportunity to secure a job with a construction company that was building the new Sunset Park pool complex in Brooklyn. A subset of the WPA was the Federal Theatre Project (FTP) that provided funds to stimulate employment in the arts. A recipient of such a program were the dance bands that were formed to play for free at various venues, including the Wednesday night sessions at Sunset Park.

Following are a few Roosevelt biographical links:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/fr32.html
http://www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/fdrbio.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_D._Roosevelt