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Biographies for Mesa County Colorado
ASPINALL, Wayne Norviel
(1896—1983)
ASPINALL, Wayne Norviel, a Representative from Colorado;
born in Middleburg, Logan County, Ohio, April 3, 1896;
moved with his parents to Palisade, Mesa County, Colo.,
in 1904; attended the public schools; studied at the
University of Denver until the First World War, then
enlisted in the Air Service of the Signal Corps and
served as a corporal and staff sergeant until discharged
as a flying cadet; returned to the University of Denver
and graduated in 1919; taught school in Palisade, Colo.,
1919-1921; president of the Mount Lincoln School
District School Board 1920-1922; graduated from the
Denver Law School in 1925; was admitted to the bar the
same year and commenced practice in Palisade, Colo.;
also engaged in the peach-orchard industry; again taught
school 1925-1933; member of Palisade Board of Trustees
1926-1934; district counsel of the Home Owners Loan
Corporation in western Colorado in 1933 and 1934; member
of the State house of representatives 1931-1934 and in
1937 and 1938, serving as Democratic whip in 1933, and
as speaker in 1937 and 1938; served in the State senate
1939-1948 and was Democratic whip in 1939, majority
floor leader in 1941, and minority floor leader
1943-1947; during the Second World War was commissioned
a captain in Military Government in 1943, serving
overseas as a legal expert with the American and English
forces; participated in the Normandy drive with the
English Second Army; was discharged on December 14,
1944; elected as a Democrat to the Eighty-first and to
the eleven succeeding Congresses (January 3,
1949-January 3, 1973); chairman, Committee on Interior
and Insular Affairs (Eighty-sixth through Ninety-second
Congresses); unsuccessful candidate for renomination in
1972 to the Ninety-third Congress; resumed the practice
of law; was a resident of Palisade, Colo., until his
death there October 9, 1983; cremated; ashes interred at
Orchard Mesa Municipal Cemetery, Grand Junction, Colo.
Source: Biographical Directory of the United States
Congress, 1771-Present, contributed by A. Newell. |
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