Charles McCarthy, who created the agency now known as the Legislative Reference Bureau and served as its first chief, was born to Irish immigrant parents in Brockton, Massachusetts, on June 29, 1873. He achieved distinction as an All-American football player at Brown University, and later coached football at the University of Georgia for two seasons before attending the University of Wisconsin, where he earned a Ph.D. in history in 1901. That same year, the Free Library Commission established a library for the legislature in the capitol and appointed McCarthy to fill the position of chief document clerk at a salary of $83.33 per month. (McCarthy chose to be called “chief,” and the title continues today.)

An advocate of the progressive movement, McCarthy strongly supported “The Wisconsin Idea” that emphasized the debt of service the University of Wisconsin owed to the state and its citizens. His objective in collecting information from all over the world was to promote well-drafted, innovative legislation that would survive court challenge and serve as a model for other states and the federal government. He also worked to develop vocational education, first in Wisconsin in 1911, and later nationally through promotion of the Smith Hughes Act of 1917, which created federal aids for vocational schools.

Because of McCarthy’s political activism, Governor Emanuel Philipp attempted to dismantle the bureau in 1915, but McCarthy successfully defended the mission of the LRB and later became a trusted advisor to Philipp. Later in his career, McCarthy served the federal government as the first director of the U.S. Commission on Industrial Relations and as a personal aide to Herbert Hoover in the Food Administration during World War I. An early exponent of farmers’ cooperatives for purchasing and marketing, he influenced the system of state regulation of railroads and public utilities. He also urged municipal budget reform, the commission type of city government, and widening the state’s educational opportunities through the University Extension program. Hoping to improve his health, he journeyed to Prescott, Arizona, where he died on March 25, 1921. The Wisconsin Legislature honored his service with a bronze plaque, installed in the Assembly Chamber.