Otto Dowling
United States naval officer (1881-1946)
Otto Carl Dowling (February 28, 1881 – April 14, 1946) was a United States Navy Captain, and the governor of American Samoa from April 17, 1934, to January 15, 1936. He graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1903. Dowling served in World War I, before retiring. He was re-commissioned in World War II, serving as the commander of a naval ammunition depot on Iona Island in New York. He commanded the Lake Denmark Powder Depot, and was in charge when lightning struck the location, causing a large explosion of millions of dollars' worth of ammunition. A board of inquiry recommended him for the Distinguished Service Cross for his bravery in the situation.
He was Governor of American Samoa from 1934 to 1936. As Governor, he discriminated against the Samoan people, believing they had little ability to plan or administer, and were generally lazy. He abandoned a project on the island to train people in agricultural and sawmill skills. He shut down some local occupational training facilities, and outlawed the sale of alcohol to men under 18, and to all women.
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This entry incorporates text from “Otto Dowling” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.