John Dewey served as President of the League for Industrial Democracy

Robert Rothman collection of John Dewey, 1935-1959 | Manuscripts

Biographical Note
John Dewey was born on October 20, 1859 in Burlington, Vermont and graduated in 1879 from The University of Vermont. Although he taught and remained primarily at Columbia University, he also taught or lectured at the University of Chicago, University of Michigan, University of Minnesota, University of California, Imperial University in Tokyo, National University in Peking, and the University of Mexico. He retired from active service, and was appointed as Professor Emeritus of Philosophy in Residence at Columbia University in 1930. He also worked for the Turkish government and as an educational ad visor for the Barnes Foundation, served as chairman of the Committee for the Defense of Leon Trotsky and was elected president of the League for Industrial Democracy.

This is from Southern Illinois University.

For those who may come upon this at random, John Dewey is widely regarded as the Father of Modern Education in the United States.

The League was a very radical group in the early progressive era. Later on in it's existence, the LID's student wing would change it's name and become Students for a Democratic Society.

This is one of those things I'd written about before, but merely as a footnote when it should've gotten a greater focus.

In doing some additional digging for a timeline, I found out when Dewey was nominated as it's president: 1939. Dewey's involvement with the LID leadership has been written about by several of his biographers. Jo Ann Boydston, Molly Cochran(above timeline link), and Alan Ryan. Here is Dewey's welcome address as President of the group.

http://tinyurl.com/99dx6rd