Wallace cracked TIME's list of worst Vice Presidents but was without peer when it came to farming. As the industry reeled during the Great Depression, Wallace whose father also served as Secretary of Agriculture presided over the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933, which raised farm prices by regulating production for the first time. He also oversaw the creation of food-stamp and school-lunch programs that have survived to the present day.
Top 10 Best Cabinet Members
As the President-elect and his transition team think about whom to tap for top jobs in the Obama Administration, TIME looks back on a group of 20th-century Cabinet members who distinguished their offices