[1] Born in Rochester, New York, of English and Scottish ancestry to Thomas and Jane Read on May 28, 1881, Read was either a candidate for or served in nearly all state-level offices in Michigan (he was never a candidate for or elected Secretary of State).

Read was a presidential elector for Michigan in 1928, casting a ballot for Herbert Hoover, and a delegate to the 1940 Republican National Convention in Philadelphia which nominated Wendell Willkie (who eventually lost to Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Senator Arthur H. Vandenberg of Michigan was a candidate for the nomination at that convention.

Read died after surgery at a hospital in Kalamazoo, Michigan in 1962.

[2] The elementary school in his hometown of Shelby is named for Read.