John M. Coffee

For other people named John Coffee, see John Coffee (disambiguation).
Coffee as depicted in the Pictorial Directory of the 79th Congress
John M. Coffee

John Main Coffee (January 23, 1897 - June 2, 1983) was a U.S. Representative from Washington.

Education

John Coffee was born in Tacoma, Washington and attended the public schools. He then attended the University of Washington in Seattle, earning an A.B. and LL.B., 1920 and graduated from the law department of Yale Law School, J.D., in 1921.

He was admitted to the bar in 1922 and commenced practice as a lawyer in Tacoma, Washington.

Public Service

in 1922 he was appointed Secretary to United States Senator C.C. Dill until 1924. He then became Secretary of the Advisory Board of the National Recovery Administration, 1933-1935.

Coffee also served as Appraiser and examiner of Pierce County, Washington for the State Inheritance Tax and Escheat Division from 1933-1936 as well as Civil service commissioner for Tacoma, Washington, in 1936.

Election

Coffee was elected as a Democrat to the Seventy-fifth and to the four succeeding Congresses (January 3, 1937 – January 3, 1947). He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1946 to the Eightieth Congress when he was defeated by Republican Thor Tollefson. Coffee would also run losing races in 1950 for the Eighty-second Congress and in 1958 to the Eighty-sixth Congress.

Death

He then became a practicing attorney in Tacoma, Washington, until his death in June 1983.

John Main Coffee Jr.

His son, John Main Coffee Jr. (died May 8, 2012) was a Unitarian minister and a longtime professor of history at Emerson College in Boston, Massachusetts, and coauthored A Century of Eloquence: the history of Emerson College, 1880-1980 and was editor of The Fare Box, a publication from the American Vecturist Association.[1]

References

  1. Rhea Becker and Amanda Jenkins (May 16, 2012). "Emerson mourns the loss of Rev. John Coffee". Emerson College Today. Emerson College. Retrieved June 16, 2012.

External Links

United States House of Representatives
Preceded by
Wesley Lloyd
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Washington's 6th congressional district

1937-1947
Succeeded by
Thor C. Tollefson

 This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.