Robert W. Hemphill

Robert Witherspoon Hemphill (May 10, 1915 - December 25, 1983) was a U.S. Representative from South Carolina, and later a long-serving United States federal judge. He was the great-great-nephew of Senator John Hemphill, great-nephew of John J. Hemphill, great-nephew of William Huggins Brawley, and great-great-grandson of Robert Witherspoon.

Born in Chester, South Carolina, Hemphill attended the public schools. He graduated from the University of South Carolina in 1936 and from the law school of the same university in 1938. He was admitted to the bar in 1938 and commenced the practice of law in Chester.

He volunteered in 1941 as a flying cadet in the United States Army Air Corps and served as a bomber pilot until December 1945. After returning from the war, he served as chairman of Chester County Democratic conventions in 1946 and 1947. He was elected to the South Carolina House of Representatives in 1946, serving from 1947 to 1948. He served as solicitor of the Sixth South Carolina Judicial Circuit from 1951 to 1956.

Hemphill was elected as a Democrat to the Eighty-fifth and to the three succeeding Congresses, serving from January 3, 1957, until his resignation May 1, 1964, to take a federal judicial post. During his Congressional service, he was a delegate to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization Congress in London in 1959.

On April 15, 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson nominated Hemphill to a seat on both the United States District Court for the Eastern District of South Carolina and the United States District Court for the Western District of South Carolina, vacated by George Bell Timmerman, Sr. Hemphill was confirmed by the United States Senate, and received his commission, on April 30, 1964. He served as Chief Judge of the Eastern District from 1964 to 1965, but on November 1, 1965, the two District Courts were re-combined, and Hemphill was reassigned by operation of law to the United States District Court for the District of South Carolina. He served as Chief Judge of the entire District from 1979 to 1980, and then assumed senior status on May 10, 1980.

Hemphill was a resident of Chester until his death there on December 2, 1983. He was interred in Hopewell Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church Cemetery, in Chester.

Sources

• Robert W. Hemphill at Find a Grave

• Robert W. Hemphill at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress

• Robert W. Hemphill at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a public domain publication of the Federal Judicial Center.