Robert Taft, Jr.

Robert Taft Jr. (February 26, 1917 – December 7, 1993) was a member of the Taft political family who served as a Republican Congressman from Ohio between 1963 and 1965, as well as between 1967 and 1971. He also served as a U.S. Senator between 1971 and 1976.

Taft attended Yale University and Harvard University Law School. At Yale he was a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity. During World War II, Taft served as an officer in the United States Navy from 1942 to 1946. After law school, Taft joined the Cincinnati law firm, Taft, Stettinius, and Hollister, which had been founded by his father. Taft served in the Ohio House of Representatives from 1955-1962 until winning election to the United States House of Representatives. Taft won election to the United States House of Representatives in 1962 as an at-large representative from Ohio (at-large seats were barred by the Voting Rights Act).

In 1964, rather than running for re-election to the House, he ran for the U.S. Senate, but he lost to Stephen M. Young. In 1966, Taft returned to the House of Representatives, unseating Democratic incumbent (and future Governor of Ohio) John J. Gilligan. 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. 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.

Family

He was the great-grandson of Secretary of War Alphonso Taft, grandson of President William Howard Taft, the son of Senator Robert Taft and Martha Wheaton Bowers. He married Blanca Duncan Noel. They were the parents of Ohio Governor Bob Taft and three other children. Although the subject of this article was listed as "Robert A. Taft, Jr." in the 1920 U.S. Federal Population Census, it is his son who is known as Robert Alphonso Taft II.

Note on name

Because Robert Taft did not have his father's middle name, Alphonso, he was not technically a 'Jr.' His son Bob Taft (the former governor of Ohio) is Robert Alphonso Taft II.