John Jacob Rhodes

John Jacob Rhodes, Jr. (September 18, 1916 – August 24, 2003) was an American lawyer and politician, who was elected as a Republican Representative from the state of Arizona. His son, John Jacob Rhodes III, also became a representative from Arizona.

Rhodes was born in Council Grove, Kansas. He met Calvin Coolidge when he was eleven years old, and after shaking hands with the President, he reportedly refused to wash his hand for a week. He attended public schools, and in 1938 graduated from Kansas State University, in Manhattan, Kansas. In 1941, he graduated from Harvard Law School, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and became a lawyer with a private practice. From 1941 to 1946 he was in the United States Army Air Corps, and serving at Williams Field, Arizona, he chose to relocate there with his new wife, Elizabeth Harvey Rhodes in 1946. From 1947 to 1952 he was the staff advocate of the Arizona National Guard, and from 1951 to 1952 he was the vice chairman of the Arizona Board of Public Welfare.

Rhodes ran for Attorney General of Arizona in the 1950 election as a Republican. True to his mentor and friend, Barry Goldwater's prediction, he lost; Arizona was over 75% Democratic at the time. In 1952, 1954, and 1968 he was a delegate to the Republican National Conventions. In 1952 Rhodes ran again, this time for the U.S. House of Representatives. He won, despite a shoe-string budget, by 8% of the vote, and was elected to the Eighty-third United States Congress, and was the first Republican ever elected to represent Arizona in the House.

Rhodes would stay in office for the next 30 years, from January 3, 1953 to January 3, 1983, serving in the 83rd to 96th Congresses. He spent seven years as House Minority Leader, from the 93rd to 96th Congresses, a role he assumed when Gerald Ford became Vice President in December 1973.

Rhodes will most likely be remembered for two things while in office: the Central Arizona Project, a project which brought water to the cities and towns of Arizona, and his presence at the meeting with President Richard M. Nixon in August 1974 to inform the President that the Republican Party would not support him through an impeachment (the President tendered his resignation soon thereafter).

After his time on Capitol Hill, Rhodes spent most of his remaining days in Mesa, Arizona. On August 14, 2003, Speaker Dennis Hastert awarded Rhodes with the Congressional Distinguished Service Medal, one of only a handful awarded. Rhodes remarked to his friend Hastert that he had the only job Rhodes had ever really wanted. He died only days later after a long fight with cancer, with his wife and most of his children with him. He had been visited by most of his numerous grand and great-grandchildren in the week leading to his death.

Following his death, over 100 different newspapers carried his obituary, and President George W. Bush also delivered a statement at the White House's website.

References

* [http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=R000188]

External links

* [http://www.asu.edu/lib/archives/rhodes/contents.htm An Online Exhibit of the John J. Rhodes Papers from the Arizona State University Libraries]
* [http://www.johnrhodesmemories.org/ A memorial from family members, friends, and colleagues; including Gerald Ford and Dennis Hastert] (no longer available in preparation for publishing)
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