Richard Franklin Vander Veen (November 26, 1922 – March 3, 2006) was a politician from the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sove ...

Michigan Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...

Early life and education

Born in

Grand Rapids, Michigan Grand Rapids is a city and county seat of Kent County in the U.S. state of Michigan. At the 2020 census, the city had a population of 198,917 which ranks it as the second most-populated city in the state after Detroit. Grand Rapids is the ...

, Vander Veen attended the local public schools and graduated from

Muskegon High School Muskegon High School is a public high school located in Muskegon, Michigan, and was the first high school in Muskegon County, Michigan. History The Class of 1875, consisting of two girls, was the first from Muskegon High School. Records show ...

in 1940. He earned a B.S from the University of South Carolina in 1946 and an

LL.B. Bachelor of Laws ( la, Legum Baccalaureus; LL.B.) is an undergraduate law degree in the United Kingdom and most common law jurisdictions. Bachelor of Laws is also the name of the law degree awarded by universities in the People's Republic of Chi ...

from Harvard Law School in 1949. He was admitted to the Michigan

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in 1949 and commenced practice in Grand Rapids. In 1951, he, Walter Freihofer and George Cook formed what was to become the third-largest law firm in Grand Rapids. He retired from the law firm when he was elected to Congress. He is a relative of Musician Anthony Keidis.

Military service

With the outbreak of

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 opposing ...

, Vander Veen enlisted 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 ...

in January 1941 and served until 1946, seeing active duty in the South Pacific Theater. He also served in the

Korean War , date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...

from 1950 to 1952 with the rank of

lieutenant (junior grade) Lieutenant junior grade is a junior commissioned officer rank used in a number of navies. United States Lieutenant (junior grade), commonly abbreviated as LTJG or, historically, Lt. (j.g.) (as well as variants of both abbreviations), ...

Political career

In 1958, Vander Veen made an unsuccessful bid as the

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candidate to unseat incumbent

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 ...

U.S. Representative 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 chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they c ...

Gerald Ford in

Michigan's 5th congressional district Michigan's 5th congressional district is a United States congressional district in the Lower Peninsula of Michigan. The district is represented by Republican Tim Walberg. Predecessors From 1873 to 1993, the 5th was based in the Grand Rapids a ...

. He became chair of the Michigan Fifth District Democratic Party in 1959 and was an unsuccessful candidate in the Democratic primary election for Lieutenant Governor of Michigan in 1960, losing to

T. John Lesinski Thaddeus John "T. John" Lesinski, (April 28, 1925 – August 13, 1996), was an American politician and judge from the U.S. state of Michigan. Biography Lesinski was born in Detroit, Michigan and lived in Detroit and Grosse Pointe Shores. He gra ...

. He was chairman of the Michigan State Democratic Convention in 1960, and was a delegate to the state conventions in 1962 and 1964. He served on the Michigan State Mental Health Commission, 1958–1963, and the Michigan State Highway Commission, 1964–1969. In 1969, he was elected to the

East Grand Rapids East Grand Rapids is a city in Kent County in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2010 census, the population was 10,694. The city is part of the Grand Rapids metropolitan area and is surrounded by Grand Rapids and Grand Rapids Township, b ...

Board of Education. After Gerald Ford resigned his House seat in 1973 to become

Vice President of the United States The vice president of the United States (VPOTUS) is the second-highest officer in the executive branch of the U.S. federal government, after the president of the United States, and ranks first in the presidential line of succession. The vice ...

, Vander Veen was elected in a special election on February 18, 1974, to fill Ford's seat in the

93rd Congress The 93rd United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, composed of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, DC from January 3, 1973, ...

. Vander Veen's election from the heavily Republican district was seen as a stunning upset defeat for the Republican Party. He was the only Democrat to be elected to Congress from the Grand Rapids area from 1912 to 2022. The Republican candidate, Robert VanderLaan, was the Republican leader of the Michigan Senate and, up to that point, had never lost an election. Vander Veen turned the election into a referendum on the increasingly unpopular

U.S. President The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States ...

Richard Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was ...

. He stopped campaigning directly against his opponent, and instead took out newspaper advertisements "in which he promised to do his utmost to dislodge Nixon and turn the presidency over to Ford, a political folk hero in the district."''In the Shadow of Watergate: Bob Michel Becomes a Congressional Leader''
by Frank H. Mackaman, The Dirksen Congressional Center This upset caused a panic in the Republican Party leadership, as it appeared to foreshadow more losses for the party in the November elections."Nixon: Lots of People Cheat on Taxes"
''The Tech'', March 1, 1974, p. 4

TIME Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, ...

, March 4, 1974 Political analyst

Larry Sabato Larry Joseph Sabato (; born August 7, 1952) is an American political scientist and political analyst. He is the Robert Kent Gooch Professor of Politics at the University of Virginia, where he is also the founder and director of the Center for P ...

writes in his

Crystal Ball A crystal ball, also known as an orbuculum or crystal sphere, is a crystal or glass ball and common fortune-telling object. It is generally associated with the performance of clairvoyance and scrying in particular. In more recent times, the cry ...

newsletter that Vander Veen's capture of Gerald Ford's solidly Republican district after Ford had been elevated to the Vice Presidency was an electrifying victory that foreshadowed the Democratic Watergate landslide of November 1974. ''(see also 1974 Midterm Senate and House elections)'' Vander Veen was reelected in November 1974 to a full term in the 94th Congress, but lost his seat in 1976 to Republican Harold S. Sawyer. In 1978, Vander Veen ran for the

United States 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 pow ...

, but lost his bid for the Democratic nomination to Carl Levin, who went on to win the general election in November. Richard Vander Veen 94th United States Congress 1975

Richard Vander Veen 94th United States Congress 1975

Vander Veen formed two environmental companies: ''Resource Energy'' and ''Enigered''. In 1990, he founded the Ryerson Library Foundation, and served as its president. After his service in Congress, Vander Veen served as a member of the Michigan State Waterways Commission. Vander Veen died of prostate cancer at his home in East Grand Rapids at the age of 83.

References

External links

The Political Graveyard

Congressman Vern Ehlers' note to Members of Congress about the death of former Congressman Vander Veen
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vander Veen, Richard 1922 births 2006 deaths Politicians from Grand Rapids, Michigan American people of Dutch descent Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Michigan 20th-century American politicians School board members in Michigan People from East Grand Rapids, Michigan Harvard Law School alumni University of South Carolina alumni United States Navy personnel of World War II United States Navy personnel of the Korean War Deaths from prostate cancer Deaths from cancer in Michigan