Born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Gorman attended the common schools and the Bryant and Stratton Business College at Chicago, Illinois.

On April 14, 1927, Chicago Mayor William Hale Thompson appointed former U.S. congressman Gorman as a special assistant corporation counsel, with the assignment of looking through school textbooks for lies and distortions.

[1][2] Thompson had been accusing Superintendent of Chicago Public Schools William McAndrew of conspiring with Great Britain to spread propaganda to indoctrinate students against the United States.

Gorman would later write an apology letter on October 11, 1929, admitting that he had never actually read that textbook and that the sworn statements he had made were, in fact, written by someone else.

This article incorporates public domain material from the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress