Richard Harding Poff

Richard Harding "Dick" Poff (October 19, 1923 – June 27, 2011) was an American politician and judge. He was first elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1952 from Virginia's 6th congressional district. An attorney and a Republican, he was given strong consideration for the United States Supreme Court by President Richard M. Nixon and was later appointed as a justice (later senior justice) of the Virginia Supreme Court. Early life and education Born in Radford, Montgomery County, Virginia, Poff attended the local public schools and graduated from Christiansburg High School. He then traveled to Salem, Virginia for studies at Roanoke College. After his military service below, Poff used his GI bill benefits, he earned a law degree (LL.B.) in 1948 from the University of Virginia School of Law at Charlottesville. Military service During the Second World War, Poff served as a bomber pilot with the Eighth Air Force in England; flew thirty-five successful missions over Europe; awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross; was inactivated from the service as a first lieutenant serving from February 1943 to August 1945. Legislative career Poff was first elected to Congress in 1952, defeating incumbent Democrat Clarence G. Burton. He was the first Republican to represent this part of Virginia since Reconstruction, and likely owed his victory to Dwight Eisenhower carrying the state in that year's presidential election. However, the 6th had already been moving away from its Democratic roots for some time. The Byrd Democrats in western Virginia and the Shenandoah Valley had begun splitting their tickets as early as the 1930s. He would never face another contest nearly as close as his first one, and was reelected nine times.