Richard Walker Bolling

Richard Walker Bolling (born in New York City on May 17 1916–died in Washington D.C. on April 21 1991), was a prominent Democratic Congressman from Kansas City, Missouri, and Missouri's Fifth Congresional District from 1949 to 1983.

Early life and education

The great-great-grandson of John Williams Walker and great-great-nephew of Percy Walker), he attended Phillips Exeter Academy, Exeter, New Hampshire, At the age of fifteen, upon his father’s death, he returned to the family home in Huntsville, Alabama. He then attended the University of the South, in Sewanee, Tennessee, where he studied literature and French, earning a B.A. in 1937 and an M.A., 1939. He went on to further graduate studies, at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1939-1940.

Academic career

An educational administrator by profession, Bolling taught at Sewanee Military Academy in 1938 and 1939, and then served as assistant to the head of the Department of Education at Florence State Teachers College, in Alabama, in 1940.

Military career

In April 1941, Bolling entered the United States Army as a private and served until discharged as a lieutenant colonel in July 1946, with four years’ overseas service in Australia, New Guinea, Philippines, and in Japan, where he served as assistant to the chief of staff to General Douglas MacArthur. he was awarded the Legion of Merit and Bronze Star. He served as veterans’ adviser at the University of Kansas City in 1946 and 1947.

Political career

Boling was elected as a Democrat to the Eighty-first Congress in 1948 and to the sixteen succeeding Congresses, serving from (January 03 1949 to January 03 1983). In Congress, he served as chairman, Select Committee on Committees of the House (Ninety-third Congress), Joint Economic Committee (Ninety-fifth Congress); Committee on Rules (Ninety-sixth and Ninety-seventh Congresses). Due to heart disease, he retired in 1981 and was not a candidate for reelection in 1982 to the Ninety-eighth Congress. He remained a resident of Washington, D.C., until his death there on April 21 1991.

Personal life

Bolling resided in Silver Spring, Maryland, while in Washington, D.C., and maintained a summer home at Portage Point, Michigan.

ee also

References

* [http://bioguide.congress.gov/biosearch/biosearch.asp Biographal Dictionary of the United States Congress] .

* [http://library.umkc.edu/spec-col/bolling.htm | Guide to the Richard W. Bolling Papers at the University of Missouri, Kansas City] .

* [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D0CE4D8113EF931A15757C0A967958260 | New York Times", Obituary, 1991] .

* [http://www.trumanlibrary.org/oralhist/bolling.htm | Transcript of Bolling's Oral History at the Harry S. Truman Library] .