President Coolidge presents Congressional Medal of Honor to sailor Hero. William Russel Huber, Machinist Mate, First Class, United States Navy, receiving from President Coolidge today the Congressional Medal of Honor awarded to him for an act of outstanding heroism. After a boiler explosion on the U.S.S. Bruce last June 11, Huber rescued shipmates and then succeed in closing off the steampipes at the risk of his own life. In the picture at extreme left is Admiral Charles F. Hughes, Chief of Naval Operations, while on the right is Secretary of the Navy Curtis D. Wilbur

John Calvin Coolidge Jr. (July 4, 1872 – January 5, 1933) was the 30th President of the United States (1923–29). He was elected as the 29th vice president in 1920 and succeeded to the presidency upon the sudden death of Warren G. Harding in 1923. Born in Plymouth, Vermont, on July 4, 1872, Coolidge was the son of a village storekeeper. He was graduated from Amherst College with honors and started his political career as a councilman in Northampton, Massachusetts, and became Governor of Massachusetts, as a Republican. Elected in his own right in 1924, he gained a reputation as a small-government conservative, and also as a man who said very little, although having a rather dry sense of humor. Coolidge was a popular figure and restored public confidence in the White House after the scandals of his predecessor's administration. He left office with considerable popularity amid the material prosperity which many Americans were enjoying during the 1920s era. Coolidge was both the most negative and remote of Presidents, and the most accessible. He once explained to Bernard Baruch why he often sat silently through interviews: "Well, Baruch, many times I say only 'yes' or 'no' to people. Even that is too much. It winds them up for twenty minutes more."

America’s Richest Families, 1900-1940