Ray Thornton

Ray Thornton

Raymond Hoyt "Ray" Thornton Jr. (born July 16, 1928 in Conway , Arkansas , † April 13, 2016 in Little Rock , Arkansas) was an American lawyer and politician . Between 1973 and 1979 he represented the fourth and from 1991 to 1997 the second constituency of the state of Arkansas in the US House of Representatives .

Career

Ray Thornton attended public schools in Leola and Sheridan , Grant Counties . From 1945 to 1947 he studied at the University of Arkansas and then until 1950 at Yale University . He then began law school at the University of Texas . The study was interrupted by the Korean War, in which Thornton participated as an officer in the US Navy . After the war he finished his law studies and was admitted to the bar in 1956. He then began to work in his new profession in Sheridan and Little Rock, Arkansas. Between 1956 and 1957 he was also the assistant district attorney in Pulaski and Perry Counties .

Thornton joined the Democratic Party . From 1969 to 1970 he was a member of a commission for the revision of the state constitution of Arkansas. He was then from 1971 to 1973 as Attorney General Attorney General of his state. In 1972 Thornton was elected to the US House of Representatives in Washington, DC as his party's candidate in the fourth district of Arkansas . There he replaced David Pryor on January 3, 1973 . As a "freshman" he became a member of the Justice Committee, and approved in 1974, although personally skeptical at first, ultimately for the impeachment ( " Impeachment ") of US President Richard Nixon .

After two re-elections Thornton was able to exercise his mandate in Congress until January 3, 1979. In 1978 he declined to run again. Instead, he applied unsuccessfully within his party for the nomination for election to the US Senate .

From 1979 to 1980 Thornton served on the board of directors of the joint committee of Ouachita Baptist University and Henderson State University . He then served as President of Arkansas State University from 1980 to 1984 . He held the same position between 1984 and 1990 at the University of Arkansas.

In 1990 Thornton was re-elected to Congress in the second district of Arkansas, where he replaced Tommy F. Robinson on January 3, 1991 . After two re-elections, he was able to complete a total of three further legislative terms in the House of Representatives. Two days before the end of his last term, he resigned on January 1, 1997 after he had renounced another candidacy in 1996 and was appointed judge of the Arkansas Supreme Court . He held this office between 1997 and 2005. In 2009 Thornton became chairman of the Arkansas Lottery Commission .

Web links

• Ray Thornton in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)
• Literature by and about Ray Thornton in the WorldCat bibliographic database