Robert Taft Jr.

Robert Alphonso Taft Jr. (February 26, 1917 – December 7, 1993) was an American politician who served as a United States Senator from Ohio from 1971 to 1976. A member of the Republican Party, he also served in the United States House of Representatives from 1963 and 1965, and again from 1967 to 1971. He was a member of the prominent Taft political family; his father was Senate majority leader Robert A. Taft and his grandfather was President William Howard Taft, while his son Bob would serve as Ohio governor.

Early life and education Robert Alphonso Taft Jr. was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, on February 26, 1917, the second of four sons born to Robert A. Taft Sr. and Martha Wheaton Bowers. Robert Jr.'s paternal grandparents were President William Howard Taft and First Lady Helen Herron Taft, while his maternal grandparents were Solicitor General Lloyd Wheaton Bowers and Louisa Bennett Wilson. His older brother was William Howard Taft III, who served as U.S. Ambassador to Ireland from 1953 to 1957, while his younger brothers were Lloyd Bowers Taft, who worked as an investment banker in Cincinnati, and Horace Dwight Taft, who became a professor of physics and dean at Yale. Taft graduated from Yale University in 1939 and Harvard Law School in 1942. In 1955, he became a compatriot of the Sons of the American Revolution.

Taft served in the Ohio House of Representatives from 1955 to 1962 until winning election to the United States House of Representatives. He was elected in 1962 as an at-large representative from Ohio (at-large seats were later barred by the Voting Rights Act of 1965). Sarah Butler Taft; Deborah Taft; and Jonathan Duncan Taft. Joan died on January 16, 2015.