Robert Alphonso Taft Jr. (February 26, 1917 – December 7, 1993) was an American politician. He was a member of the Taft political family who served as a

Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

Congressman A Member of Congress (MOC) is a person who has been appointed or elected and inducted into an official body called a congress, typically to represent a particular constituency in a legislature. The term member of parliament (MP) is an equivalen ...

from

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

between 1963 and 1965, as well as between 1967 and 1971. He also served as a

U.S. Senator The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and powe ...

between 1971 and 1976.

Early life

Taft Jr. was born in

Cincinnati, Ohio Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...

, on February 26, 1917, the second of four sons born to Robert Alphonso Taft Sr. and the former Martha Wheaton Bowers. Unlike his father, he did not have a

middle name In various cultures, a middle name is a portion of a personal name that is written between the person's first given name and their surname. A middle name is often abbreviated and is then called middle initial or just initial. A person may be ...

, although he sometimes used the same middle initial. Robert Jr.'s paternal grandparents were

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...

William Howard Taft William Howard Taft (September 15, 1857March 8, 1930) was the 27th president of the United States (1909–1913) and the tenth chief justice of the United States (1921–1930), the only person to have held both offices. Taft was elected pr ...

and First Lady Helen Louise "Nellie" Herron while his maternal grandparents were

Lloyd Wheaton Bowers Lloyd Wheaton Bowers (March 9, 1859 – September 9, 1910) was an American lawyer. Life and career Bowers was born in Springfield, Massachusetts, the son of Samuel Dwight Bowers and Martha Wheaton Dowd. On both sides, his ancestors were Purita ...

(

Solicitor General of the United States The solicitor general of the United States is the fourth-highest-ranking official in the United States Department of Justice. Elizabeth Prelogar has been serving in the role since October 28, 2021. The United States solicitor general represent ...

from 1909–1910) and Louisa Bennett Wilson. His older brother was

William Howard Taft III William Howard Taft III (August 7, 1915 – February 23, 1991) was an American diplomat who served as United States Ambassador to Ireland from 1953 to 1957, and was a grandson of President William Howard Taft and First Lady Helen Louise "Nellie ...

, who served as Ambassador to Ireland from 1953 to 1957, while his younger brothers were Lloyd Bowers Taft, who worked as an investment banker in Cincinnati, and Horace Dwight Taft, who became a professor of physics and dean at Yale. Taft graduated from

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

in 1939 and

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States. Each class ...

in 1942.

Career

During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, Taft served as an

officer An officer is a person who has a position of authority in a hierarchical organization. The term derives from Old French ''oficier'' "officer, official" (early 14c., Modern French ''officier''), from Medieval Latin ''officiarius'' "an officer," fro ...

in the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

from 1942 to 1946. After law school, Taft joined the Cincinnati law firm,

Taft, Stettinius, and Hollister Taft Stettinius & Hollister, commonly known as "Taft", is an American, white-shoe law firm founded in Cincinnati, with offices in Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton and Delaware, Ohio; Chicago, Illinois; Denver, Colorado; Detroit, Michigan; Indianapoli ...

, which had been founded by his father. Taft served in the

Ohio House of Representatives The Ohio House of Representatives is the lower house of the Ohio General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Ohio; the other house of the bicameral legislature being the Ohio Senate. The House of Representatives first met in ...

from 1955 to 1962 until winning election to the

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the Lower house, lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the United States Senate, Senate being ...

. Taft won election to the

in 1962 as an at-large representative from Ohio (at-large seats were barred by the

Voting Rights Act The suffrage, Voting Rights Act of 1965 is a landmark piece of Federal government of the United States, federal legislation in the United States that prohibits racial discrimination in voting. It was signed into law by President of the United ...

). In 1955 he became a compatriot of the

Sons of the American Revolution The National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution (SAR or NSSAR) is an American Congressional charter, congressionally chartered organization, founded in 1889 and headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky, Louisville, Kentucky. A non-prof ...

. In 1964, rather than running for re-election to the House, he ran for the

U.S. Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and powe ...

, but he lost to

Stephen M. Young Stephen Marvin Young (May 4, 1889December 1, 1984) was an American politician from the U.S. state of Ohio. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as a United States Senator from Ohio from 1959 until 1971. Life and career Young was born o ...

. In 1966, Taft returned to the House of Representatives, unseating Democratic incumbent (and future

Governor of Ohio A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

)

John J. Gilligan John Joyce “Jack” Gilligan (March 22, 1921 – August 26, 2013) was an American Democratic politician from the state of Ohio who served as a U.S. Representative and as the 62nd governor of Ohio from 1971 to 1975. He was the father of Kathl ...

. In 1968, Taft won re-election, defeating Democrat Carl F. Heiser. Taft then won Young's U.S. Senate seat six years after losing to him when Young did not run for re-election, running against

Howard Metzenbaum Howard Morton Metzenbaum (June 4, 1917March 12, 2008) was an American politician and businessman who served for almost 20 years as a Democratic member of the U.S. Senate from Ohio (1974, 1976–1995). He also served in the Ohio House ...

. Taft, however, lost six years later in a rematch against Metzenbaum. He resigned six days before the end of his term to resume the practice of law.

Personal life

In 1939, Robert Jr. married Blanca Duncan Noel (1917-1968), daughter of Lewis W. Noel and Natalie Duncan. They were the parents of: * Robert Alphonso "Bob" Taft III (born 1942),

from 1999 to 2007"Ohio Third Frontier creates $6.6 billion in economic impact, 41,300 jobs"
, Med City News, Retrieved September 21, 2009. *Sarah Butler Taft *Deborah Taft *Jonathan Duncan Taft. After Blanca's death, Robert Jr. remarried to Katherine Longworth Whittaker, widow of his distant cousin David Gibson Taft. They divorced in 1977 and in October 1978, he married the former Joan McKelvy, also of Cincinnati. On November 29, 1993, Taft suffered a stroke and fell into a coma. He never woke from the coma and died on December 7, 1993. Joan died on January 16, 2015.

References

Other sources *http://www.history.army.mil/books/Last_Salute/Ch9.htm *http://family.hodank.com/jumbo/group5/f_2637.html#0

*http://mikehaydock.com/p608.htm#i53887 *https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1964&dat=19700514&id=u6ZGAAAAIBAJ&sjid=ySwNAAAAIBAJ&pg=1001,5329446 *http://enquirer.com/editions/2000/11/28/loc_governors.html {{DEFAULTSORT:Taft, Robert Jr. Republican Party members of the Ohio House of Representatives Taft family American people of English descent American people of Scotch-Irish descent 1917 births 1993 deaths Taft School alumni Harvard Law School alumni Yale University alumni Politicians from Cincinnati Republican Party United States senators from Ohio 20th-century American politicians Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Ohio