Tripti Joshi (Editor)

William H Meyer

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Preceded by
  
Winston L. Prouty

Name
  
William Meyer

Succeeded by
  
Robert Stafford


William H. Meyer httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonsthu

Role
  
Member of the United States House of Representatives

Died
  
December 16, 1983, Rupert, Vermont, United States

Education
  
Pennsylvania State University

Political party
  
Democratic Party, Liberty Union Party

William Henry Meyer (December 29, 1914 – December 16, 1983), was a Member of the United States House of Representatives from Vermont.

Born in Philadelphia, he attended the public schools of Philadelphia and graduated from Pennsylvania State University in 1936. He worked as a timber cruiser, State and Federal forester, and Civilian Conservation Corps technician and supervisor in West Virginia, Maryland, Wisconsin, and New Jersey from 1936 to 1940. He moved to a farm in Bennington County, Vermont in 1945. He worked with the Soil Conservation Service in Vermont from 1940 to 1950. In 1951 he entered private practice as a consulting forester and became executive director of the Vermont Forest and Farmland Foundation.

He was elected as a Democrat to the Eighty-sixth Congress (January 3, 1959 – January 3, 1961), defeating the Republican candidate, former Governor Harold Arthur. He became the first Democrat to win a statewide election in Vermont since the founding of the Republican party 104 years earlier. He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1960 to the Eighty-seventh Congress, when he was defeated by Republican Governor Robert Stafford. He was appointed as a consultant for the Technical Review Staff of the Department of the Interior in May 1961, and served until December 1963.

He was the unsuccessful candidate for the Democratic nomination for United States Senator in 1962, 1964, and 1970. He was a delegate to the Vermont State Democratic conventions of 1956, 1960, 1964, and 1968.

By one measure Representative Meyer was the most left-wing member to serve in Congress during the 1937-2002 period. He was one of the leading founders of the nonviolent socialist Liberty Union Party of Vermont in June 1970. He was their party's nominee for United States Senator after failing to obtain the Democratic nomination that year, receiving 0.91% of the vote. He was an unsuccessful candidate for election in 1972 to the Ninety-third Congress.

He was a resident of West Rupert, Vermont until his death there December 16, 1983. He was cremated and had his ashes interred at his home in West Rupert.

His son Karl Meyer is a noted radical pacifist.

References

William H. Meyer Wikipedia