Herbert Clark Hoover
| Burial Location | Visited | President Grave # |
| West Branch, Iowa | August 21, 2004 | 17th Visited |
The fifth and final dead president my father
and I saw on our 2004 trip to the Midwest
was Herbert Hoover, who is buried on the
grounds of his presidential library in West
Branch, Iowa.
President Hoover is interred alongside First
Lady Lou Henry Hoover, his wife of forty-
four years. The pair met as students at
Stanford University in the 1890s, where
Herbert earned a degree in engineering
and Lou attained a B.A. in geology.
Hoover was a Republican who also served
in the Harding and Coolidge administrations
as secretary of commerce. Before politics,
he was renowned for his humanitarian
efforts in Belgium in the wake of World
War I.
The hilltop burial plot has an unimpeded
view of President Hoover's birth cottage
550 yards away, as was his wish. The
president's surviving kin worked with
Iowa architect William Wagner to design
the simple stone slabs, which align with
Hoover's Quaker beliefs. The monuments
were carved of Vermont marble and bear
only the couple's names and lifespans.
* * * Fast Facts * * *
- First Lady: Lou Henry Hoover
- Spouse: Lou Henry Hoover (m. 1899-1944)
- Political Party: Republican Party
- Term: 1929-1933
- Vice President: Charles Curtis
- Born: August 10, 1874
- Died: October 20, 1964
- Age: 90
- Cause of Death: Gastrointestinal Bleeding; Strained Vascular System
- Cemetery: Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum, West Branch, Iowa
- GPS Coordinates: 41°40'05.3"N 91°21'07.4"W
- Spouse: Lou Henry Hoover (m. 1899-1944)
- Political Party: Republican Party
- Term: 1929-1933
- Vice President: Charles Curtis
- Born: August 10, 1874
- Died: October 20, 1964
- Age: 90
- Cause of Death: Gastrointestinal Bleeding; Strained Vascular System
- Cemetery: Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum, West Branch, Iowa
- GPS Coordinates: 41°40'05.3"N 91°21'07.4"W
* * * Background on Herbert Hoover * * *
* Under Construction* Under Construction
* Under Construction
Sources Consulted
Lamb, Brian, and the C-SPAN Staff. Who's Buried in Grant's Tomb?: A Tour of Presidential Gravesites. New York: PublicAffairs, 2000. Reprinted. New York: PublicAffairs, 2003.
"Life Portrait of Herbert Hoover." C-SPAN video, 2:40:12. October 4, 1999. https://www.c-span.org/video/? 151627-1/life-portrait-herbert-hoover.
Orren, Karen. "Benjamin Harrison." In The Reader's Companion to the American Presidency, edited by Alan Brinkley and Davis Dyer, 268-75. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2000.
