This piece originally appeared at State Capacitance.
A previous article of mine discussed the Truman-era reforms to IRS.
One Mr. Andy Brunelle reached out. His grandfather Calvin Wright was nearly the last Senate-confirmed appointee at IRS, being confirmed as the director of their Idaho office in 1951. Following the 1952 reorganization, he had to take a civil service exam to keep his job. After coming second only to a retired customs bureau official, he was able to keep his position at the agency, where he then led a long and illustrious career.
He apparently approved of the 1952 reorganization and travelled throughout the Pacific Northwest to help other field offices successfully navigate it. His work on IRS reorganization continued throughout the 1950s and 1960s, where his speeches and training helped IRS transition to the early computer age.
An episode from 1969 illustrates how long politicization lasted at IRS – Wright’s superiors at Treasury directed him to open his office on a weekend so that a politician could catch up on several years of unpaid income taxes.
