Richard Vander Veen

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Richard Vander Veen (1975)

Richard Franklin Vander Veen (born November 26, 1922 in Grand Rapids , Michigan , †  March 3, 2006 there ) was an American politician . Between 1974 and 1977 he represented the state of Michigan in the US House of Representatives .

Career

Richard Vander Veen attended public schools in his home country including Muskegon High School , which he graduated from in 1940. During World War II , he served in the US Navy between 1941 and 1946 . He was used in the South Pacific region . After the war he continued his education by studying at the University of South Carolina at Columbia . After a subsequent law degree at Harvard University and his admission as a lawyer in 1949, he began to work in Grand Rapids in his new profession. During the Korean War he was reactivated as a naval officer. He later became President of Vander Veen, Freihofer & Cook, PC.

Politically, Vander Veen was a member of the Democratic Party . In 1958 he ran for the first time, but unsuccessfully, for Congress . Two years later, he failed his party's primary election for the Lieutenant Governor of Michigan. In 1959 he was district chairman of his party. In 1960, 1962 and 1964 he took part as a delegate to the regional Democratic party conventions in Michigan; In 1960 he was president of this event. Between 1969 and 1974, Vander Veen served on the East Grand Rapids Education Committee . He was also a member of the State Health Commission for Nervous Disorders from 1958 to 1963. From 1964 to 1969 he was a member of the Autobahn Committee.

Following the resignation of MP Gerald Ford , who succeeded Spiro Agnew as Vice President of the United States , Vander Veen was elected to the United States House of Representatives in Washington, DC in the by-election for the fifth seat of Michigan . There he took up his new mandate on February 18, 1974. He was the first Democrat to be elected to Congress in that constituency since 1912 . After being re-elected, he could remain there until January 3, 1977. In the 1976 elections he lost to Republican Harold S. Sawyer . In 1978 he unsuccessfully sought his party's nomination for the US Senate elections . He later became a member of the Michigan State Waterways Commission. He was also President of the Resource Energy Company, which he founded . Richard Vander Veen died on March 3, 2006 in his hometown of Grand Rapids.

Web links

Commons : Richard Vander Veen  - Collection of images, videos and audio files