John Jacob Rhodes

John Jacob Rhodes

John Jacob Rhodes (born September 18, 1916 in Council Grove , Kansas , † August 24, 2003 in Mesa , Arizona ) was an American politician . Between 1953 and 1983 he represented the first constituency of the state of Arizona in the US House of Representatives .

Early years

John Jacob Rhodes attended public schools in his native Kansas and then Kansas State University until 1938 . After studying law at Harvard University Law School , he was admitted to the bar in 1941. Then he started to work in his new profession. During the Second World War , he served in the US Army's flight unit from 1941 to 1946 . He was mainly stationed in Arizona.

Political rise

After the war, Rhodes decided to move permanently to Arizona. From 1947 to 1952 he was a legal advisor to the state's National Guard. Rhodes became a member of the Republican Party , whose Republican National Conventions he attended in 1952, 1964 and 1968 as a delegate. Between 1951 and 1952, Rhodes was Chairman of the Public Welfare Committee in Arizona . In 1950 he unsuccessfully applied for the post of Attorney General of Arizona.

Rhodes in the US Congress

In the 1952 congressional election, Rhodes became the first Republican to be elected to the US House of Representatives since the state of Arizona was founded. After he was repeatedly confirmed in his mandate in the following decades, he was able to exercise the office between January 3, 1953 and January 3, 1983 for thirty years. During this time he was at times leader of the Republican MPs. He became known when, on August 7, 1974, together with US Senators Barry Goldwater and Hugh Scott, he announced to President Richard Nixon that the Republican Party was no longer behind the President in the Watergate affair and the impeachment proceedings that resulted from it Suggested resignation, which took place two days later.

During his time in Congress , Rhodes also worked to improve water supplies in much of Arizona. In 1982 he decided not to run again. His seat fell to John McCain , who has been US Senator for Arizona since 1987 and defeated Barack Obama as Republican presidential candidate in 2008 .

Another résumé

After the end of his tenure in the federal capital Washington , he retired to Mesa. In 2003, a few days before his death, he received an Order of Merit for his time in Congress. John Rhodes was married to Elizabeth Harvey for 61 years. The couple had four children, including son John , who would also be a member of the House of Representatives between 1987 and 1993.

Web links

• John Jacob Rhodes in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)

• John Jacob Rhodes in the database of Find a Grave (English)