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"Dad used to regale us kids with claims that one year in Idaho his family lived on nothing but potatoes
-- for breakfast, lunch and dinner," Mitt Romney recounted in his book. Over time, though, Mitt's grandfather became prosperous, building some of the finest homes in Salt Lake City, according to the Globe book, but along with many other Americans suffered financial setbacks during the Great Depression. "He never took out bankruptcy, which he could have done several times," George Romney wrote of his father, according to the Globe book. George Romney worked as a plasterer during high school and later attended four colleges, but he never graduated. He spent two years as a Mormon missionary in England and Scotland. His first exposure to politics was in 1929, as an aide in Washington to Democratic Sen. David I. Walsh of Massachusetts. He went on to work at ALCOA and the Aluminum Wares Association. His first job in Detroit came in 1939 when he was local manager of the Automobile Manufacturers Association. He later became head of American Motors and Michigan's governor. Romney gave up the governor's office in 1969 to be secretary of Housing and Urban Development in the Nixon administration. His father's success ensured a more privileged path for Mitt Romney, who was raised in the posh Detroit suburb of Bloomfield Hills and attended an elite prep school before he went on to the business and law schools of Harvard University.
[Associated
Press;
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