Political Career
Born in Terre Haute, Indiana, on August 10, 1896, Harrison was raised in Indiana, Washington, D.C and Nebraska. During World War I he served in the United States Army as a Private in the Air Corps.
He attended the University of Nebraska in 1919 and 1920, studied law, was admitted to the Indiana bar in 1925 and practiced in Indianapolis until 1936. He served in the Indiana House of Representatives from 1927 to 1929. In 1937 he moved to Wyoming, where he practiced law in Sheridan. From 1945 to 1950 he served in the Wyoming House of Representatives. He served as the Secretary to the Wyoming Interim Committee from 1947 to 1950. (The Interim Committee is made up of members of the Wyoming House and Senate and is empowered to act on certain matters when the full legislature is not in session.)
Harrison was elected to the House of Representatives and served between 1951 and 1955. He was not a candidate for renomination in 1954, but ran for the Senate seat vacated by the retirement of Edward D. Crippa, narrowly losing to Joseph C. O'Mahoney. After that, he served as the regional administrator of the Housing and Home Finance Agency from 1955 to 1956 and as liaison officer for the agency from 1957 to 1958. He was returned to Congress in 1960 and served between 1961 and 1965. He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1964, among dozens of Republican members swept out of office in the Lyndon B. Johnson-Hubert H. Humphrey landslide.
He ran again in 1966, was elected to the Ninetieth Congress, and served between 1967 and 1969. He was an unsuccessful candidate for renomination in 1968. He was appointed by President Richard M. Nixon to the Federal Renegotiation Board on July 23, 1969, and served until 1971. (The board was created in 1951 to review the annual profits of defense contractors, determine whether profits under no-bid contracts were excessive, and negotiate reductions. It was abolished in 1978.)
After he retired, he lived in North Redington Beach, Florida, until his death in St. Petersburg.
Read more about this topic: William H. Harrison (Wyoming Congressman)
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