Dean of the United States House of Representatives

The Dean of the United States House of Representatives is the longest continuously serving member of the House. The present Dean is John Dingell, a Democrat of Michigan.

This is a symbolic post whose only customary duty is to swear in a Speaker of the House when he or she is elected. The Dean comes forward on the House Floor to administer the oath to the Speaker-elect before the new Speaker then administers the oath to the other members. The Dean does not preside over the election of the Speaker, unlike the Father of the House in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom and the Dean of the Canadian House of Commons.

Because of the other privileges associated with seniority, the Dean is usually allotted some of the most desirable office space, and is generally either chair or ranking minority member of an influential committee.

It is unclear when the position first achieved concrete recognition, though the seniority system and increasing lengths of service emerged in the early 20th century. As late as 1924, Frederick H. Gillett was Dean, and also Speaker, before becoming a Senator; modern Deans move into their positions so late in their careers that a move to the Senate is highly unlikely.

The Deanship can change hands unexpectedly; in the 1952 election, Adolph J. Sabath became the first Representative elected to a 24th term, breaking the record of 23 terms first set by former Speaker Joseph Gurney Cannon, whose service had been discontinuous whereas Sabath's was not. North Carolina's Robert L. Doughton had not contested that election, as he was retiring at the age of 89 years and two months (a House age record broken only in 1998 by Sidney R. Yates, though Claude Pepper, who died early in his final term in 1989, holds the record for oldest winner of a House election). However, Sabath died before the new term began, and Doughton was Dean for the old term's final months, before Speaker Sam Rayburn became Dean in the new Congress.

In 1994, Texas Democrat Jack Brooks was defeated for reelection in the year he was expected to succeed Jamie L. Whitten as Dean.

The second longest-serving current member of the house is John Conyers (D-Michigan), who was first elected in 1964.

List of Deans of the House

Years as Dean are followed by name, party, state, and start of service in Congress.

All the members of the First Congress had equal seniority (as defined for the purpose of this article), but Muhlenberg as the Speaker was the first member to be sworn in. Muhlenberg, Hartley and Thatcher were among the 13 members who attended the initial meeting of the House on March 4, 1789.

In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries some state delegations to the House were often not elected until after the term had begun. To avoid confusion this fact is ignored in the list below.

Term as Dean	Dean	Party	State	Seniority date	Speaker(s)
March 1789- March 1797	Frederick Muhlenberg	Federalist	Pennsylvania	March 4, 1789 (also Speaker 1789-91 and 1793-95)	Frederick Muhlenberg (PA-PA) - 1789 Jonathan Trumbull, Jr. (PA-CT) - 1791 Frederick Muhlenberg (AA-PA) - 1793 Jonathan Dayton (F-NJ) - 1795
March 1797- December 1800	Thomas Hartley	Federalist	Pennsylvania	March 4, 1789	Jonathan Dayton (F-NJ) - 1797 Theodore Sedgwick (F-MA) - 1799
	George Thatcher	Federalist	Massachusetts
December 1800- March 1801	George Thatcher	Federalist	Massachusetts	March 4, 1789
March 1801- March 1803	Andrew Gregg	Democratic-Republican	Pennsylvania	March 4, 1791	Nathaniel Macon (DR-NC) - 1801
	William B. Grove	Federalist	North Carolina
	Nathaniel Macon	Democratic-Republican	North Carolina
March 1803- March 1807	Andrew Gregg	Democratic-Republican	Pennsylvania	March 4, 1791	Nathaniel Macon (DR-NC) - 1803, 1805
	Nathaniel Macon	Democratic-Republican	North Carolina
March 1807- December 1815	Nathaniel Macon	Democratic-Republican	North Carolina	March 4, 1791 (also Speaker 1801-1807)	Joseph Bradley Varnum (DR-MA) - 1807, 1809 Henry Clay (DR-KY) - 1811, 1813 Langdon Cheves (DR-SC) - 1814
December 1815- April 1816	Richard Stanford	Democratic-Republican	North Carolina	March 4, 1797	Henry Clay (DR-KY) - 1815
April 1816- March 1817	John Davenport	Federalist	Connecticut	March 4, 1799
March 1817- March 1830	Thomas Newton, Jr.	Democratic-Republican; Adams	Virginia	March 4, 1801	Henry Clay (DR-KY) - 1817, 1819 John W. Taylor (DR-NY) - 1820 Philip Pendleton Barbour (DR-VA) - 1821 Henry Clay (DR-KY) - 1823 John W. Taylor (NR-NY) - 1825 Andrew Stevenson (D-VA) - 1827, 1829
March 1830- March 1833	William McCoy	Jacksonian	Virginia	March 4, 1811	Andrew Stevenson (D-VA) - 1831
March 1833- February 1842	Lewis Williams	National Republican; Whig; Democratic	North Carolina	March 4, 1815	Andrew Stevenson (D-VA) - 1833 John Bell (W-TN) - 1834 James K. Polk (D-TN) - 1835, 1837 Robert M. T. Hunter (W-VA) - 1839 John White (W-KY) - 1841
February 1842- March 1843	Horace Everett	Whig	Vermont	March 4, 1829
	Dixon H. Lewis	Democratic	Alabama
March 1843- April 1844	Dixon H. Lewis	Democratic	Alabama	March 4, 1829	John Winston Jones (D-VA) - 1843
April 1844- February 1848	John Quincy Adams	Whig	Massachusetts	March 4, 1831	John Wesley Davis (D-IN) - 1845 Robert Charles Winthrop (W-MA) - 1847
	James I. McKay	Democratic	North Carolina
February 1848- March 1849	James I. McKay	Democratic	North Carolina
March 1849- March 1855	Linn Boyd	Democratic	Kentucky	March 4, 1839 [1] (also Speaker from 1851)	Howell Cobb (D-GA) - 1849 Linn Boyd (D-KY) - 1851, 1853
March 1855- March 1859	Joshua Reed Giddings	Republican	Ohio	May 5, 1842	Nathaniel Prentice Banks (A-MA) - 1856 James Lawrence Orr (D-SC) - 1857
March 1859- March 1863	John S. Phelps	Democratic	Missouri	March 4, 1845	William Pennington (R-NJ) - 1860 Galusha A. Grow (R-PA) - 1861
March 1863- March 1869	Elihu B. Washburne	Republican	Illinois	March 4, 1853	Schuyler Colfax (R-IN) - 1863, 1865, 1867 Theodore Medad Pomeroy (R-NY) - 1869
March 1869- March 1875	Henry L. Dawes	Republican	Massachusetts	March 4, 1857	James G. Blaine (R-ME) - 1869, 1871, 1873 Joseph H. Rainey (R-SC) - 1874 James G. Blaine (R-ME) - 1874
March 1875- January 1890	William D. Kelley	Republican	Pennsylvania	March 4, 1861	Michael C. Kerr (D-IN) - 1875 Samuel J. Randall (D-PA) - 1876, 1877, 1879 J. Warren Keifer (R-OH) - 1881 John Griffin Carlisle (D-KY) - 1883, 1885, 1887 Thomas Brackett Reed (R-ME) - 1889
January 1890- April 1890	Samuel J. Randall	Democratic	Pennsylvania	March 4, 1863
April 1890- March 1891	Joseph G. Cannon	Republican	Illinois	March 4, 1873
	Roger Q. Mills	Democratic	Texas
	James H. Blount	Democratic	Georgia
	Richard P. Bland	Democratic	Missouri
March 1891- March 1892	Roger Q. Mills	Democratic	Texas	March 4, 1873	Charles Frederick Crisp (D-GA) - 1891
	James H. Blount	Democratic	Georgia
	Richard P. Bland	Democratic	Missouri
March 1892- March 1893	James H. Blount	Democratic	Georgia	March 4, 1873
	Richard P. Bland	Democratic	Missouri
March 1893- March 1895	Richard P. Bland	Democratic	Missouri	March 4, 1873	Charles Frederick Crisp (D-GA) - 1893
March 1895- March 1897	David B. Culberson	Democratic	Texas	March 4, 1875	Thomas Brackett Reed (R-ME) - 1895
March 1897- September 1899	Thomas Brackett Reed	Republican	Maine	March 4, 1877	Thomas Brackett Reed (R-ME) - 1897
September 1899- March 1912	Henry H. Bingham	Republican	Pennsylvania	March 4, 1879	David B. Henderson (R-IA) - 1899, 1901 Joseph Gurney Cannon (R-IL) - 1903, 1905, 1907, 1909 Champ Clark (D-MO) - 1911
March 1912- December 1914	Sereno E. Payne	Republican	New York	March 4, 1889	Champ Clark (D-MO) - 1913
December 1914- April 1918	William A. Jones	Democratic	Virginia	March 4, 1891	Champ Clark (D-MO) - 1915, 1917
April 1918- March 1919	Henry Allen Cooper	Republican	Wisconsin	March 4, 1893
	Frederick H. Gillett	Republican	Massachusetts
March 1919- March 1925	Frederick H. Gillett	Republican	Massachusetts	March 4, 1893 (also Speaker)	Frederick H. Gillett (R-MA) - 1919, 1921, 1923
March 1925- May 1928	Thomas S. Butler	Republican	Pennsylvania	March 4, 1897	Nicholas Longworth (R-OH) - 1925, 1927
May 1928- March 1933	Gilbert N. Haugen	Republican	Iowa	March 4, 1899	Nicholas Longworth (R-OH) - 1929 John Nance Garner (D-TX) - 1931
March 1933- April 1934	Edward W. Pou	Democratic	North Carolina	March 4, 1901	Henry T. Rainey (D-IL) - 1933
April 1934- November 1952	Adolph Joachim Sabath	Democratic	Illinois	March 4, 1907	Joseph W. Byrns (D-TN) - 1935 William B. Bankhead (D-AL) - 1936, 1937, 1939 Sam Rayburn (D-TX) - 1940, 1941, 1943, 1945 Joseph W. Martin, Jr. (R-MA) - 1947 Sam Rayburn (D-TX) - 1949, 1951
November 1952- January 1953	Robert L. Doughton	Democratic	North Carolina	March 4, 1911
January 1953- November 1961	Sam Rayburn	Democratic	Texas	March 4, 1913 (also Speaker from 1955)	Joseph W. Martin, Jr. (R-MA) - 1953 Sam Rayburn (D-TX) - 1955, 1957, 1959, 1961
November 1961- January 1965	Carl Vinson	Democratic	Georgia	November 3, 1914	John W. McCormack (D-MA) - 1962, 1963
January 1965- January 1973	Emanuel Celler	Democratic	New York	March 4, 1923	John W. McCormack (D-MA) - 1965, 1967, 1969 Carl Albert (D-OK) - 1971
January 1973- March 1976	Wright Patman	Democratic	Texas	March 4, 1929	Carl Albert (D-OK) - 1973, 1975
March 1976- January 1979	George H. Mahon	Democratic	Texas	January 3, 1935	Tip O'Neill (D-MA) - 1977
January 1979- January 1995	Jamie L. Whitten	Democratic	Mississippi	November 4, 1941	Tip O'Neill (D-MA) - 1979, 1981, 1983, 1985 Jim Wright (D-TX) - 1987, 1989 Tom Foley (D-WA) - 1989, 1991, 1993
January 1995- present	John Dingell	Democratic	Michigan	December 13, 1955	Newt Gingrich (R-GA) - 1995, 1997 Dennis Hastert (R-IL) - 1999, 2001, 2003, 2005 Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) - 2007, 2009 John Boehner (R-OH) - 2011

• Hartley, Stanford, Williams, Kelley, Randall, Bingham, Payne, Jones, Cooper, Butler, Pou, Sabath, Rayburn, and Patman died in office.
• Vinson, Whitten, and Dingell entered the House to fill unexpired terms.
• Sabath served as Dean longer than any other person: 18 years, 7 months, and five days.

See also

• Oldest living United States president
• List of oldest surviving members of the House of Representatives
• Dean of the United States Senate
• Longest living United States Senator
• Earliest serving United States Senator
• Oldest living United States governor
• Earliest serving United States governor
• List of members of the United States Congress by longevity of service

References

1. ^ Boyd had previously served 1835-37