William Bankhead was the 42nd Speaker of the House of Representatives under the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt.

In 1898, Bankhead became city attorney of Huntsville, serving until 1902. In 1900, he was elected to the Alabama House of Representatives for one term, serving through 1901. In 1910, Bankhead was appointed solicitor of the fourteenth judicial circuit of Alabama, serving until 1914.

In 1914, William sought the Democratic nomination for U.S. Representative, but did not get it. In 1916, he was elected Representative from the newly created 10th Congressional District. Bankhead held the 10th District until it was abolished after the 1930 Census, when Alabama lost a seat. He was the only person ever elected from the 10th District.

After reapportionment and redistricting following the 1930 Census, Bankhead was re-elected Representative from the 7th District in 1932, and was re-elected three times, serving until his death in 1940. In 1934, he was chosen House Majority Leader by his fellow Democrats. On June 4, 1936, he was chosen Speaker of the House to succeed Jo Byrns, who had died that morning. Bankhead served as Speaker until his own death in office on September 15, 1940.

As Speaker, Bankhead held the highest political office of any Alabamian save Vice President William R. King.

At the 1940 Democratic National Convention (three months before his death), he finished 2nd to Henry A. Wallace on the Vice Presidential ticket, losing the delegate count 626-329.

Druie Douglas Barnard Jr. was a United States congressman from Georgia.

From 1948 to 1962, Barnard engaged in the banking profession, primarily at the Georgia Railroad Bank, a former local Augusta banking institution. He was executive secretary to Georgia Governor Carl Sanders from 1963 to 1966, and a board member of the Georgia State Department of Transportation from 1966 to 1976.

Barnard was a delegate to the Georgia State Democratic convention in 1962 and a delegate to the 1964 Democratic National Convention. He served in the United States House of Representatives from 1977 to 1993.

James Karl Bartleman, OC OOnt is a Canadian diplomat, author, and was the 27th Lieutenant Governor of Ontario from 2002 to 2007. Bartleman grew up in the Muskoka town of Port Carling, and is a member of the Chippewas of Mnjikaning First Nation. In 1963, he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in History from the University of Western Ontario, where he was initiated as a member of Phi Delta Theta. From 2007 to 2012, Bartleman was the Chancellor of the Ontario College of Art and Design in Toronto, Ontario.

Berkley Warren Bedell is a former U.S. Representative from Iowa. After starting a successful business in his youth, Berkley Fly Co., he ran for the United States Congress in 1972, but was defeated by incumbent Wiley Mayne. In 1974, however, Bedell beat Wiley Mayne and was elected to Congress.

He was known for his support of representative democracy and his populist style. For example, he would hold town halls and let constituents vote on motions to decide what he would do in Congress on their behalf. These meetings helped Bedell understand the problems of his constituents; as a result, he backed issues that were important to his farming constituency, such as waterway usage fees and production constraints.

Robert Christopher “Chris” Bell  is an American politician, attorney, and former journalist. He is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin and South Texas College of Law. Bell served five years on the Houston City Council from 1997 to 2001, followed by one term in the United States House of Representatives from Texas’ 25th Congressional District in Houston from 2003 to 2005. He was then the Democratic nominee in the 2006 election for the office of Governor of Texas, losing to Republican incumbent Gov. Rick Perry by 406,450 votes (Perry 39% versus Bell 30%) in a fractured general election campaign that also drew in two significant independent challengers.

Bell, a member of the Democratic Party, is currently an attorney specializing in many forms of litigation, including commercial disputes, copyright infringement, and securities disputes. Prior to practicing law, Bell had been a prominent radio journalist in Texas. In 2015 he ran for the non-partisan position of mayor of Houston, and finished 5th during the general election.

William Moore “Bill” Benidickson, PC was a Canadian politician. He was the Liberal-Labour Member of Parliament for Kenora-Rainy River for over twenty years.

Born in Manitoba of Icelandic stock, Benidickson served in World War II as a Wing-Commander in the Royal Canadian Air Force. Following the war, he was elected to the Canadian House of Commons in the 1945 federal election. Due to the politics of Kenora-Rainy River which had a history electing Independent Labour politicians and where the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation posed a serious threat, the Liberals worked with the Communist Party of Canada to run Liberal-Labour candidates in federal and provincial elections. Accordingly, Benidickson ran and was elected as a “Liberal-Labour” MP for most of his parliamentary career though he always sat with the Liberal caucus and was considered a Liberal for all intents and purposes.

Benidickson served as parliamentary assistant to the minister of finance Douglas Abbott before serving in the same capacity to the minister of transport through the 1950s. In 1963, Benidickson joined the cabinet of Lester Pearson as Minister of Mines and Technical Surveys. Pearson appointed him to the Canadian Senate in 1965 where he sat as a straight Liberal until his death in 1985. Benidickson’s wife, Agnes was a member of Winnipeg’s prominent Richardson family and later served as chancellor of Queen’s University.

Joseph Clay Stiles Blackburn was a member of the State house of representatives from 1871 to 1875. He was then elected as a Democrat to the Forty-fourth and to the four succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1875 – March 3, 1885). He was the chairman of the Committee on the District of Columbia (Forty-fifth Congress) and the Committee on Expenditures in the Department of War (Forty-fifth and Forty-sixth Congresses).

In 1885, Lt. Henry T. Allen of the U.S. army named a mountain after Joseph Blackburn. Mount Blackburn is the highest peak in the Wrangell Mountains of the state of Alaska and the fifth highest peak in the United States.

Blackburn was elected to the United States Senate in 1884, was reelected in 1890, and served from March 4, 1885, to March 3, 1897. He failed to be reelected in 1896. He was the chairman of the Committee on Rules (Fifty-third Congress).

Blackburn was once again elected to the United States Senate in 1900 and served from March 4, 1901 to March 3, 1907, but failed in his next election bid in 1906. Loosely associated with the free-silver wing of the Democratic party, he was well-known nationally and his name was placed in nomination for the presidency in 1896.

Blackburn was appointed Governor of the Panama Canal Zone by President Theodore Roosevelt on April 1, 1907. He resigned in November 1909 and returned to his estate in Woodford County.

He died in Washington, D.C. and was interred in the State Cemetery in Frankfort.

Stephen E. Biegun, Michigan ’85 is an experienced business leader and international relations expert. He spent fifteen years in the private sector as a corporate officer and senior executive with one of America’s largest global corporations and he has nearly two decades of high-level government service with the Department of State, the White House, and the United States Congress. Through his years in the private sector and government service, he has developed a global network of relationships and a keen understanding of international affairs, international business, and global trade, with extensive expertise in a wide range of public policy matters.

In 2021, Mr. Biegun concluded his most recent government service as the Deputy Secretary of State, the number two diplomatic position in the United States government. A widely respected foreign policy leader, he was appointed by the President and Secretary of State and confirmed by the United States Senate with a bipartisan vote of 90-3.

At the State Department, Mr. Biegun was responsible for leadership, management, and communications for a 76,000-person workforce posted worldwide. He personally led efforts on recruitment, talent development, and retention with a particular emphasis on implementing a comprehensive overhaul of the Department’s diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. He was the  senior-level official responsible for all decisions related to the Department’s $41 billion operations and foreign assistance budget.

Mr. Biegun coordinated and led the execution of State Department policy toward China. He also led the formulation of US policies with Indo-Pacific allies and partners, especially Japan, India, Vietnam, Australia, and New Zealand. He managed bilateral relations with Canada and Mexico, with members of NATO and the European Union, and with key partners in Africa and the Middle East. Mr. Biegun recruited, appointed and directed senior-level envoys for Arctic policy and arms control negotiations.

He served as lead representative for the Department for policy development on national security and foreign policy related export controls and trade sanctions, represented the Department in the CFIUS process for approval of investments and transactions reviewed for national security considerations, and oversaw all Department efforts on technology transfer, non-proliferation, and cyber policies. His hands- on diplomatic negotiations in support of the Belarusian opposition and to end the conflict in Nagorno- Karabakh were key in stemming the violence and bloodshed in those regions.

During his tenure as Deputy Secretary of State, Mr. Biegun also served concurrently as the lead negotiator for the United States government with North Korea, working in close coordination with counterparts in South Korea, Japan, Russia, and China to pursue the elimination of nuclear weapons on the Korean peninsula and normalize US-North Korea relations. As part of these responsibilities Mr. Biegun made several trips to North Korea.

With the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, Mr. Biegun led State Department efforts to repatriate more than 100,000 American citizens trapped abroad due to rapidly closing borders and changing travel rules. He built international partnerships to identify global supply chain opportunities for the United States to acquire urgently needed supplies of personal protection equipment for healthcare providers, and he directed the execution of global assistance programs to assist other nations in overcoming the effects of the pandemic.

Prior to his most recent government service, Mr. Biegun served for fifteen years as a corporate vice president with Ford Motor Company. At Ford, he led an eighty-person global team and managed a $15 million operations budget with responsibility for all international public policy, regulatory, and governmental affairs issues including global market analysis and due diligence, negotiation of business incentives, shaping international trade agreements, and advising on new business acquisitions and investments.

At Ford, Mr. Biegun led successful negotiations with governments in Mexico, Canada, Brazil, Argentina, Nigeria, South Africa, Vietnam, Thailand, India, and Australia on infrastructure and tax incentives exceeding $9 billion in support for new or expanded industrial investments. He co-led negotiating teams that successfully acquired a bankrupt industrial complex in Romania to improve Ford’s cost base in Europe and a team that acquired a local manufacturer in Brazil to increase Ford’s reach into a new market segment, and he brokered Ford’s expansion in the Russian Federation through the creation of a joint venture with a Russian partner. Mr. Biegun also led global risk assessment for Ford and developed mitigation strategies, with particular focus on international supply chain protection and improvement. During Mr. Biegun’s tenure at Ford, he was recognized several times as one of the Company’s top achieving senior executives, and he concurrently served in leadership positions with several outside business organizations.

Mr. Biegun began his career as a foreign policy specialist with the United States Congress with a focus on Russia, the former Soviet Union, and Europe, ultimately rising to senior-level positions including as chief of staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and as the national security advisor to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist. He served two years as the Executive Secretary of the White House National Security Council, fulfilling the role of chief operating officer of the 250-person organization with a $20 million operating budget and serving as a close advisor and deputy to National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice.

Mr. Biegun has served as a spokesperson for many of the organizations with which he has worked including frequent speeches and interviews in electronic, print, and broadcast media as well as numerous appearances to testify before Congressional committees. He has volunteered as a board member for several national and local non-profit organizations and has led mentoring programs for next generation United States foreign policy and national security leaders. He graduated from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor with a bachelor of arts in Russian language, and political science.

Leslie Egerton Blackwell was a Canadian politician, soldier, lawyer, and land developer.

During the 1937 Ontario general election Blackwell was a candidate in Toronto’s Eglinton electoral district where he came in second on election night. He ran again in Eglinton, and was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario in the 1943 election that brought George Drew’s Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario to power with a minority government. Blackwell was immediately put into Drew’s cabinet as Attorney General.

After Drew’s departure from provincial politics, Blackwell was a candidate to replace him in the 1949 Conservative leadership election, placing second to Leslie Frost. He did not join Frost’s cabinet and served his remaining time as a backbencher in the legislature, and did not run in the 1951 election.

Rich Bolling was a prominent Democratic Congressman from Kansas City, Missouri, and Missouri’s 5th congressional district from 1949 to 1983.

Bolling was elected as a Democrat to the Eighty-first Congress in 1948 and to the sixteen succeeding Congresses, serving from January 3, 1949 until January 3, 1983. In Congress, he served as chairman of the Select Committee on Committees of the House (in the Ninety-third Congress), Joint Economic Committee (in the Ninety-fifth Congress); and the Committee on Rules (in the Ninety-sixth and Ninety-seventh Congresses). He introduced the discharge petition that released the Civil Rights Act of 1964 from the Senate’s committees chaired by southern democrats, a vital step to passing the act. He was twice a candidate for House Majority leader, losing to Carl Albert in 1961 and to Jim Wright (by three votes) in 1977.

Due to heart disease, in 1981 he announced his retirement and was not a candidate for reelection in 1982 to the Ninety-eighth Congress. He remained a resident of Washington, D.C., until his death there on April 21, 1991.