Twenty-Seventh President: William Howard Taft (1909-1913)

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“The man who possessed this impressive public record was tall and round, with a ruddy complexion, a blondish mustache, and dark hair. His legs seemed too short for his torso. His weight sometimes climbed to over 325 pounds. Yet despite this great bulk he was light on his feet and a nimble dancer. He was also quick to joke about his generous proportions. When offered the Kent Chair of Constitutional Law at Yale he replied that it would be inadequate but that “a Sofa of Law” might be all right. Then Taft probably chuckled a rapturous, subterranean, incomparable chuckle: “the most infectious chuckle in the history of politics,” wrote his biographer, Henry F. Pringle. Said the wife of a Texas congressman, “It reminded me of the cluck a whippoorwill gives, a laugh to himself, when he has been whistling with special vim and mischief.”

-americanheritage.com