Attorney General

HERBERT BROWNELL JR., 48, lawyer.

Family & Early Years: Born in Peru, Neb., one of seven children of a political science teacher who had recently moved from upstate New York. Father later transferred to the University of Nebraska, where young Herb was entered after graduation from Lincoln, Neb. high school. Took a liberal arts course, edited the campus Daily Nebraskan, graduated in 1924 with Phi Beta Kappa honors and a scholarship to Yale Law School. At Yale, edited the Law Journal, graduated cum laude.

Legal Career: Admitted to the New York Bar, 1927. Settled down in New York City in 1929 to practice, and eventual partnership in the conservative firm of Lord, Day & Lord. His specialty: hotel and restaurant law.

Political Career: In 1931 ran for the state assembly from Manhattan's Tenth Assembly District on a strong anti-Tammany platform. Defeated. His campaign manager: an ambitious young Republican lawyer, Tom Dewey. Next year Brownell won the election, was re-elected four times; quit the assembly in 1937 to rebuild his law practice and his income.

In 1941 came back to politics in the campaign manager's role. Ran Dewey's successful 1942 campaign for governor of New York, Dewey's 1944 and 1948 Presidential campaigns. Served as chairman of the Republican National Committee (1944-46), reorganized the committee, built up a $750,000 war chest.

In March 1952, Brownell flew to Paris, talked with Ike, flew home the next night and agreed to take strategic command of Ike's campaign for the nomination. His boldest stroke: seizing on the Taft "steal" of delegate votes in Texas as a weapon to break the power of the Taft forces in the convention. Worked as an Eisenhower troubleshooter during the election campaign, but principally in New York, to avoid rousing the ire of Midwestern Taftmen.

Personality: A man of slight build with thinning brown hair, slumps deep in a chair at political conferences, thinks before he speaks, and speaks softly, briefly and to the point. Married to Doris McCarter, a onetime Texas Democrat. Likes to relax at home with his four children: Joan, 16; Anne, 14; Tom, 12 (named for a maternal grandfather, not for Dewey); Jim, 9. They live in a comfortable old house near Manhattan's Gramercy Park. In religion, a Methodist. For recreation likes dancing, baseball (a Yankee fan), and ranching vacations in Arizona.

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