Richard Harding Poff

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American judge (1923–2011)

Richard Harding "Dick" Poff (October 19, 1923 – June 27, 2011) was an American politician and judge. He was first elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1952 from Virginia's 6th congressional district . An attorney and a Republican , he was given strong consideration for the United States Supreme Court by President Richard M. Nixon and was later appointed as a justice (later senior justice) of the Virginia Supreme Court .

Early life and education

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Born in Radford , Montgomery County, Virginia , Poff attended the local public schools and graduated from Christiansburg High School . He then traveled to Salem, Virginia for studies at Roanoke College . After his military service below, Poff used his GI bill benefits, he earned a law degree (LL.B.) in 1948 from the University of Virginia School of Law at Charlottesville .

Military service

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During the Second World War , Poff served as a bomber pilot with the Eighth Air Force in England ; flew thirty-five successful missions over Europe ; awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross ; was inactivated from the service as a first lieutenant serving from February 1943 to August 1945.

Legislative career

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Poff was first elected to Congress in 1952, defeating incumbent Democrat Clarence G. Burton . He was the first Republican to represent this part of Virginia since Reconstruction , and likely owed his victory to Dwight Eisenhower carrying the state in that year's presidential election. However, the 6th district had been shifting away from its Democratic roots for some time. The Byrd Democrats in western Virginia and the Shenandoah Valley had begun splitting their tickets as early as the 1930s. He would never face another contest nearly as close as his first one, and was reelected nine times.

Poff had his share of controversy during his decades in the House of Representatives. He and Joel Broyhill of Virginia were the only two Republicans, along with the rest of Virginia's entire Congressional delegation, and nearly all members from Southern states, to sign the Southern Manifesto protesting the Supreme Court's mandate in Brown v. Board of Education _ to desegregate public schools. Linwood Holton , former Governor of Virginia (1970–1974), and the Commonwealth's first post-Reconstruction Republican Governor, suggests that Poff likely could not have been reelected unless he had signed the manifesto. Despite that controversial decision, he was well liked by most of his constituents, most of whom had never been represented by a Republican before. This included many African Americans , who in an ABC News report on his nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court described him as having a great interest in individuals; only one person in that report described him as a racist despite having signed the Southern Manifesto .[citation needed
_] Consistent with his signing of the Manifesto, Poff voted against the Civil Rights Acts of 1957 ,

,

, and , and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 , but voted in favor of the 24th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution . In 1971, he voted for the Equal Employment Opportunity Act

and supported federal aid to accelerate the desegregation process. He was the only member of the House Republican leadership who did not support President Eisenhower's proposal to increase the minimum wage and widen its coverage. According to John Dean , he was also the author of most of the Twenty-fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution while serving on the Judiciary Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Electoral history

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• 1952; Poff was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives with 51.55% of the vote, defeating Democrat Clarence Godber Burton.
• 1954; Poff was re-elected with 62.31% of the vote, defeating Democrat Ernest Robertson and Social Democrat J.B. Brayman.
• 1956; Poff was re-elected with 62.09% of the vote, defeating Democrat John L. Whitehead and Social Democrat Brayman.
• 1958; Poff was re-elected with 56.74% of the vote, defeating Democrat Richard F. Pence and Social Democrat Brayman.
• 1960; Poff was re-elected with 82.62% of the vote, defeating Social Democrat Brayman.
• **1962

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