William Dudley Foulke

William Dudley Foulke (November 20, 1848 – May 30, 1935) was an American literary critic, journalist, poet and reformer.

He was born in New York City and graduated Columbia University in 1869 and Columbia Law School in 1871. He practiced law in New York until 1876, when he moved to Richmond, Indiana, and married Mary Taylor Reeves. Foulke became involved in local politics and was elected to the Indiana State Senate from 1882 to 1886. As a senator, he introduced bills to reform the state’s civil service system. In addition, he investigated abuses against inmates and employees at the state hospital for the insane. He served on the Platform Committee of the Progressive Party. In 1889 he was asked by the National Civil Service Reform League to investigate the U.S. Federal civil service. President Theodore Roosevelt appointed Foulke a Commissioner in the Civil Service Commission in 1901.

He was a critic of the Ku Klux Klan, which had strong membership in Richmond, and was threatened with flogging for his views.

He was also one of the early presidents of the American Woman Suffrage Association, the first president of the Proportional Representation League, and (for five years) president of the National Municipal League.

As a writer, Foulke wrote on a number of diverse subjects. In 1898, he published a biography of Oliver Hazard Perry Morton. Later, he translated the medieval History of The Lombards by Paul the Deacon. Other works include Biographical Introduction to Some Love Poems of Petrarch (1916).

Foulke was a major supporter of the Richmond Group of artists and was one of the founders of the Richmond Art Museum in 1898. He loaned paintings for early exhibitions and donated many works in the museum's permanent collection.

Some of his poems include Honor to France. Foulke wrote two memoirs: Fighting the Spoilsmen (1919), where he recounted his career in fighting for civil service reform. There followed a more general reminiscences, A Hoosier Autobiography (1922).

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