Bill Emerson
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Norvell William "Bill" Emerson (January 1, 1938 - June 22, 1996) was an American politician from Missouri. He served in the United States House of Representatives from 1981 until his death in 1996. He was succeeded in the House by his widow, Jo Ann Emerson. Everson was a Republican.
Emerson was raised in Jefferson County, Missouri and attended public schools in nearby Hillsboro. He served as a Congressional Page and graduated from Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri in 1959. Emerson attended law school at the University of Missouri and the University of Baltimore, graduating with his LL.B from Baltimore in 1964. He was also a Captain in the United States Air Force Reserve from 1964 to 1992.
While in law school, Emerson served as a Congressional aide to Representative Robert Ellsworth, and and after graduation he served on the staff of Senator Charles Mathias. Throughout the 1970s he worked in governmental affairs for several companies, and formed his own consulting group in 1979. In 1980, he was elected to Congress and was re-elected seven times. Everson served on the House Committee on Rules. He succumbed to cancer in 1996.
The Bill Emerson Memorial Bridge which crosses the Mississippi River at Cape Girardeau is named after him.
The Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act was named after Bill Emerson, who fought for the proposal but died of cancer before it was passed. This act encourages the donation of food and grocery products to non-profit organizations for distribution to needy individuals by protecting donors from liability when donating to a non-profit organization, so long as the product is donated in "good faith," even if it later causes harm to the needy recipient.
