Robert Free Kent (June 26, 1911 – October 1, 1982) was an American lawyer and politician who represented Crawford County in the

Pennsylvania House of Representatives The Pennsylvania House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameral Pennsylvania General Assembly, the legislature of the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. There are 203 members, elected for two-year terms from single member districts. It ...

from 1947 to 1956 and served as

Pennsylvania Treasurer The Pennsylvania State Treasurer is the head of the Pennsylvania Treasury Department, an independent department of state government. The state treasurer is elected every four years. Treasurers are limited to two consecutive terms. The Pennsylva ...

from 1957 to 1961. Kent served in the US Marine Corps during World War II and postwar became a captain in the Marine Corps Reserve. A Republican, he ran for Pennsylvania Auditor General in 1960, losing to Democratic nominee Thomas Z. Minehart.

Early life

Kent was born in

Meadville, Pennsylvania Meadville is a city in and the county seat of Crawford County, Pennsylvania. The city is within of Erie and within of Pittsburgh. It was the first permanent settlement in Northwestern Pennsylvania. The population was 13,388 at the 2010 censu ...

, to parents O. Clare and Marion L. (Irving) Kent. He attended local public schools and earned his BA from Allegheny College and his LLB from the University of Pennsylvania Law School. Following admittance to the bar, he went into practice with his father in the firm Kent & Kent. He interrupted his practice to serve as a first lieutenant in the Marine Corps Reserves in 1944–46 during World War II, serving onboard the USS ''Menard'' (1945) and USS ''Roi'' (1946) and deploying overseas to Hawaii, Okinawa, and

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

. Postwar, he served as a captain in the Marine Corps Reserve.

Political career

On returning home from deployment, Kent was elected as a Republican to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives for the 1947 term and reelected for four consecutive terms thereafter, serving through the end of 1956. In the House, he chaired the Joint Legislative Committee on Tax-Exempt Real Property (1947–48) and served on the Commission on Interstate Cooperation (1953–54) and the Joint State Government Commission (1955–56). He served as Majority Whip in 1953. He was a member of the Republican Executive Committee of Crawford County and chaired the Crawford County Republican Party in 1953. Rather than seeking reelection to the House in 1956, Kent ran for Pennsylvania State Treasurer and won the election with 52% of the vote, defeating Democratic nominee James W. Knox. In 1960, nearing the end of his four-year term as treasurer, he ran for Pennsylvania Auditor General, winning 48% of the vote but losing to Democratic nominee Thomas Z. Minehart. He subsequently served on the State Employees Retirement Board and the State Public School Building Authority.

Personal life

Kent was married to Martha (Fell) Kent and had two children. He died at his suburban home in Harrisburg on October 1, 1982, at the age of 71. He was interred at

Indiantown Gap National Cemetery Indiantown Gap National Cemetery is a United States National Cemetery located in East Hanover Township, in Lebanon County, Pennsylvania. Administered by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, it occupies approximately , and has over 6 ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kent, Robert F. 1911 births 1982 deaths 20th-century American politicians Republican Party members of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives People from Meadville, Pennsylvania State treasurers of Pennsylvania United States Marine Corps reservists United States Marine Corps personnel of World War II Allegheny College alumni University of Pennsylvania Law School alumni