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ASPINALL, Wayne Norviel, a Representative from Colorado; born in Middleburg, Logan County,
Ohio, April 3, 1896; moved with his parents to Palisade, Mesa County, Colo., in
1904; attended the public schools; studied at the University of Denver until
the First World War, then enlisted in the Air Service of the Signal Corps and
served as a corporal and staff sergeant until discharged as a flying cadet;
returned to the University of Denver and graduated in 1919; taught school in
Palisade, Colo., 1919-1921; president of the Mount Lincoln School District
School Board 1920-1922; graduated from the Denver Law School in 1925; was
admitted to the bar the same year and commenced practice in Palisade, Colo.;
also engaged in the peach-orchard industry; again taught school 1925-1933;
member of Palisade Board of Trustees 1926-1934; district counsel of the Home
Owners Loan Corporation in western Colorado in 1933 and 1934; member of the
State house of representatives 1931-1934 and in 1937 and 1938, serving as
Democratic whip in 1933, and as speaker in 1937 and 1938; served in the State
senate 1939-1948 and was Democratic whip in 1939, majority floor leader in
1941, and minority floor leader 1943-1947; during the Second World War was
commissioned a captain in Military Government in 1943, serving overseas as a
legal expert with the American and English forces; participated in the Normandy
drive with the English Second Army; was discharged on December 14, 1944;
elected as a Democrat to the Eighty-first and to the eleven succeeding
Congresses (January 3, 1949-January 3, 1973); chairman, Committee on Interior
and Insular Affairs (Eighty-sixth through Ninety-second Congresses);
unsuccessful candidate for renomination in 1972 to the Ninety-third Congress;
resumed the practice of law; was a resident of Palisade, Colo., until his death
there October 9, 1983; cremated; ashes interred at Orchard Mesa Municipal
Cemetery, Grand Junction, Colo.
BibliographySturgeon, Stephen C. The Politics of Western Water: The
Congressional Career of Wayne Aspinall. Tucson: University of Arizona
Press, 2002.
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