William T. Pheiffer
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William Townsend Pheiffer (July 15, 1898 - August 16, 1986) was a United States Representative from New York and United States Ambassador to the Dominican Republic. Born in Purcell, Indian Territory (now Oklahoma), he attended the public schools of Purcell, Ardmore, and Oklahoma City and the University of Southern California, where he was a member of the Chi Phi Fraternity. During the First World War he served as a private in the Cavalry, United States Army, in 1918, and was graduated from the law department of the University of Oklahoma in 1919. He was admitted to the bar the same year and practiced law in Sayre from 1923 to 1926.
Pheiffer moved to Amarillo, Texas in 1926 and continued the practice of law until 1939, when he moved to New York City; he was a delegate to the Republican National Convention at Chicago in 1932 and to the Republican State conventions in 1936 and 1942. He was elected as a Republican to the Seventy-seventh Congress, holding office from January 3, 1941 to January 3, 1943; he was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1942 to the Seventy-eighth Congress and entered the United States Army as a captain of Cavalry, serving from March 12, 1943, to April 22, 1944. He was appointed counsel for the Petroleum Administration for War, Washington, D.C., on August 1, 1944 and served until February 8, 1945 when he resumed the private practice of law. He was executive assistant to the chairman of the Republican National Committee from 1945 to 1948 and was United States Ambassador to Dominican Republic from 1953 to 1957. Pheiffer was a resident of New York City until his death there in 1986.
Preceded by James H. Fay |
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New York's 16th congressional district 1941–1943 |
Succeeded by James H. Fay |