Clark Wallace Thompson was born in La Crosse, Wisconsin on August 6, 1896, and moved to Oregon in 1901 with his parents, who settled in Cascade Locks. Thompson attended the common schools and the University of Oregon at Eugene. He enlisted in the United States Marine Corps during the First World War serving from 1917-1918. He remained a United States Marine Corps reservist until 1946 except when he again served on active duty during World War II from 1940-1942.

Thompson served as treasurer of the American National Insurance Company and was a Democratic member of the House of Representatives from the 7th district of Texas from 1933 to 1935, having been elected to fill the vacancy caused by the death of United States Representative Clay Stone Briggs. He later represented the Texas’s 9th district from 1947 until he retired in 1966.

Edwin Keith Thomson usually known as Keith Thomson, was a United States Representative from Wyoming. A highly decorated World War II veteran, Thomson served three terms in Wyoming’s only U.S. House seat. On November 8, 1960, he was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1960, but died a month later of a heart attack before taking office.

Samuel Joelah Tribble was an American politician and lawyer. Tribble was born near Carnesville, Georgia and attended the University of Georgia in Athens. He was a member of the Demosthenian Literary Society and graduated in 1891 with a Bachelor of Law (LL.B.) degree. He was admitted to the state bar that same year and began practice in Athens.

From 1899 to 1904, Tribble was the solicitor of the City Court of Athens. In 1904, be became the solicitor general of the western circuit of Georgia and served in that capacity until 1908. In 1910, Tribble ran for the United States House of Representatives as a Democrat against incumbent William Marcellus Howard and won election to the 62nd United States Congress. He won re-election to that seat for two additional terms and served from March 4, 1911, until his death while in office on December 8, 1916, in Washington, D.C..

Thomas Underwood began his career working for the Lexington Newspaper for a brief time before being elected as a Democrat to the Eighty-first Congress and reelected to the Eighty-second Congress. He resigned on March 17, 1951, but was appointed to the United Stated Senate as a Democrat to fill a vacancy on March 19, 1951. After finishing the term, he sought reelection but lost. He returned to editorial work with the Lexington Herald.

As governor of Georgia from 1959 to 1963, Ernest Vandiver proved successful in fulfilling his campaign promise to remove the blight on Georgia. Under Vandiver’s capable leadership the legislature implemented sweeping changes in Georgia’s segregation policies and revised the county unit system for nominating officeholders. Without increasing the state’s tax base, Vandiver made significant improvements in the areas of services, building programs, tourism, business and industrial development, educational expansion, and mental health.

As part of his legacy, Vandiver served as the catalyst that propelled Georgia from the holds of a scandal-ridden “good old boy” network to an administration lauded for fiscal responsibility, honesty, and a progressive framework.

After graduating from Albany Law School, William Freeman Vilas, enlisted in the Union Army during the Civil War. He was captain and later lieutenant colonel of the 23rd Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry Regiment.

After the war he became a Professor of Law at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Vilas also served as a member of the Wisconsin State Assembly until 1885 when he was appointed to Postmaster General and later Secretary of the Interior by President Grover Cleveland.

From 1891 to 1897 Vilas was a member of the United States Senate, in which he was active in repealing the silver purchase clause of the Sherman silver Purchase Act. In the 1896 Democratic National Convention, Vilas was a delegate and then became one of the chief leaders of the National Democratic Party.

Richard A. Vinroot is a Republican political figure and attorney from Charlotte, North Carolina. He served as the 52nd Mayor of the City of Charlotte from 1991-1995, and ran unsuccessfully for Governor of North Carolina in 1996, 2000, and 2004.

Frederick “Fred” Moore Vinson was an American politician who served the United States in all three branches of government and was the most prominent member of the Vinson political family. In the legislative branch, he was an elected member of the United States House of Representatives from Louisa, Kentucky, for twelve years. In the executive branch, he was the Secretary of Treasury under President Harry S. Truman. In the judicial branch, President Truman appointed Vinson the 13th Chief Justice of the United States in 1946. To date, he is the last candidate nominated by a president from the Democratic Party to be confirmed as Chief Justice.

Ronald H. Walker is an American executive. He served in the administration of President Richard Nixon, first as the first Director of the White House Office of Presidential Advance, and then as Director of the National Park Service. Walker had been President Nixon’s special assistant responsible for both domestic and international travel. As such, Walker coordinated President Nixon’s groundbreaking voyage to the People’s Republic of China in February 1972.

Later, Walker went on to become a senior partner at Korn/Ferry International, President of the Richard Nixon Foundation, and is currently the Chairman of the Board of the Nixon Foundation.

Walker also served as an officer in the United States Army in Okinawa, Japan, and later became an insurance and marketing executive.

Francis E. Walter was born in Easton, Pennsylvania. During both World Wars I and II he served in the air service of the United States Navy. He was the director of the Broad Street Trust Company in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and of the Easton National Bank in Easton. From 1928-33 he was the Solicitor of Northampton County, Pennsylvania. He was a delegate to the 1928 Democratic National Convention. He was elected as a Democrat to the 73rd United States Congress and served until his death in Washington, D.C.

Walter is best known for the McCarran-Walter Act, passed over President Truman’s veto in 1952, which, while it opened naturalization to Asian immigrants for the first time, continued the immigration quota system based on national origin introduced in 1924, and allowed the U.S. government to deport and/or bar from re-entry those identified as subversives, particularly members and former members of the Communist Party. In 1944, he presented President Roosevelt with a letter opener made of an arm bone of a fallen Japanese soldier.

A staunch anti-Communist, he served as chairman of the House Un-American Activities Committee during the 84th through 88th Congresses.