Arthur Ellsworth Summerfield
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Arthur Ellsworth Summerfield (17 March 1899, Pinconning, Michigan – 26 April 1972, West Palm Beach, Florida) was a U.S. political figure. He ran (unsuccessfully) for the governorship of his home state of Michigan in 1946 and served as the chairman of the Republican National Committee between 1952 and 1953. He also served as the federal Postmaster General between 1953 and 1961.
As postmaster general, he oversaw the United States Postal Service's brief experiment with rocket-delivered mail, a flirtation that crystalized into reality for the first and only time as "missile mail" with the 8 June 1959 launch of a letter-stuffed Regulus cruise missile from the USS Barbero, a submarine of the United States Navy.
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- Before man reaches the moon your mail will be delivered within hours from New York to California, to England, to India or to Australia by guided missiles.... We stand on the threshold of rocket mail.