George Bell Timmerman, Jr.

Who was George Bell Timmerman, Jr.?

George Bell Timmerman, Jr. was the 105th Governor of South Carolina, from 1955 to 1959.

Born in Anderson County, he was raised in Charleston and graduated from the Citadel. After receiving a law degree from the University of South Carolina, he practiced law with his father in Batesburg. Timmerman enlisted in the US Navy as an officer with the entry of the United States in World War II after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Returning to South Carolina after the war, Timmerman ran as a Democrat for Lieutenant Governor in 1946 on the same ticket as fellow veteran Strom Thurmond. He was elected for a term beginning in 1947 and re-elected in 1950 for another four-year term. In the gubernatorial election of 1954, he faced nominal opposition in the Democratic primary and ran unopposed in the general election becoming the 105th Governor of South Carolina in 1955. In 1956 he was the favorite son presidential candidate of South Carolina at the Democratic National Convention.

After leaving the Governorship in 1959, Timmerman was appointed as a judge to the Eleventh Judicial Circuit in 1967 and served until 1984. He died 10 years later on November 29, 1994.