William B. Saxbe

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

William Bart Saxbe (born June 24, 1916) was an American politician of the Republican Party, who served as a U.S. Senator from Ohio and as U.S. Attorney General under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald R. Ford.

Saxbe was born in Mechanicsburg, Ohio, and received a bachelor's degree from the Ohio State University (Columbus, Ohio), Class of 1940, where he was a member of the Chi Phi Fraternity. He served in the military during World War II, from 1940 to 1945 and during the Korean War, from 1951 to 1952. In 1948, Saxbe received a law degree from Ohio State University and afterwards practiced law in Columbus.

Saxbe served as an Ohio state representative from 1947 to 1954. He was then elected Ohio attorney general, defeating Democrat Stephen M. Young, and held that office from 1963 to 1968. He was a member of the Ohio Crime Commission from 1967 to 1968. In 1968, Saxbe was elected to the U.S. Senate, defeating Democrat John J. Gilligan. He served in the Senate until 1974, when he was appointed U.S. attorney general. (There was some minor controversy regarding Saxbe's appointment, as it appeared that it violated a minor provision of the Constitution. That provision stated that a legislator could not be appointed to an executive position during the same term that the legislator and legislature had voted to increase the salary of said position. However, because there was no perception that anything intentional had been done to benefit Saxbe, the matter was widely ignored.) Gilligan, who had been elected Governor of Ohio in 1970, appointed Howard Metzenbaum to fill out Saxbe's term. Later that year, former astronaut John Glenn, another Democrat, was elected to replace Saxbe.

Saxbe served as attorney general until 1975, when he was appointed ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary to India, in which capacity he served until 1977. After that, Saxbe returned to Mechanicsburg and resumed the practice of law.

Preceded by C. William O'Neill	Ohio Attorney General 1957–1959	Succeeded by Mark McElroy
Preceded by Mark McElroy	Ohio Attorney General 1963–1969	Succeeded by Paul W. Brown
Preceded by Frank J. Lausche	United States Senator (Class 3) from Ohio 1969–1974	Succeeded by Howard M. Metzenbaum
Preceded by Elliot Richardson (Robert Bork - acting)	United States Attorney General 1974–1975	Succeeded by Edward H. Levi