Three congressmen promoted from the succession list

1886 – 1990

The Public Servants record carries the district's House succession whole, but three of its holders stood there at a line each.

Samuel B. Pettengill (1886–1974): the congressman of the court-packing fight. Born at Portland, Oregon, on 19 January 1886 and raised at Grafton, Vermont — Vermont Academy (1904), Middlebury College (1908), Yale Law School (1911) — he was admitted to the bar in 1912 and commenced practice in South Bend, which was his working home for the rest of his career: the South Bend Board of Education, 1926–28, and then the U.S. House from 4 March 1931 to 3 January 1939, elected from the Thirteenth District and redistricted into the Third. In the House he became one of the leading Democratic opponents of the 1937 plan to enlarge the Supreme Court — the stand the Dictionary of American Biography remembers him for. The second career was print and air: a syndicated newspaper column, 1939–48, and national radio commentary, 1946–48. His autobiography, My Story, appeared posthumously in 1979. He died at Springfield, Vermont, on 20 March 1974.

Shepard J. Crumpacker Jr. (1917–1986): a South Bend life whole. Born in this city on 13 February 1917, educated in its public schools, Northwestern (1938), and the University of Michigan Law School (1941), he practiced law in South Bend, then went to war as a private in the Army Air Corps on 26 September 1941 and came out a first lieutenant in 1946. The U.S. House followed, 3 January 1951 to 3 January 1957, and law practice again until 1977, when he took the bench of the St. Joseph Superior Court and held it to 1985. He was a resident of South Bend until his death here on 14 October 1986, and is buried in Riverview Cemetery.

F. Jay Nimtz (1915–1990): the congressman from the Nuremberg staff. Born in South Bend on 1 December 1915, a Central High School graduate, Indiana University gave him the A.B. (1938) and the LL.B. (1940), and he practiced law here until the Army took him on 13 June 1941; he served to 14 February 1947 and rose to lieutenant colonel, fourteen of those months as assistant executive officer in the Office of the United States Chief of Counsel for the Prosecution of Axis Criminality — the American prosecution staff at Nuremberg. Home again, he lost races for South Bend city judge (1947) and St. Joseph County prosecutor (1948), then won the House seat, serving 3 January 1957 to 3 January 1959. His last public office was a long one: president of the South Bend Redevelopment Commission from 1974 until his death, in South Bend, on 6 December 1990. He is buried in Riverview Cemetery.

Sources:

1. Biographical Directory of the United States Congress — Pettengill (P000268): the Portland birth of 19 January 1886, the education, the 1912 admission and South Bend practice, the Board of Education service, the House terms of 4 March 1931 – 3 January 1939, the column and radio years, the Springfield death of 20 March 1974; the Dictionary of American Biography citation for the court-packing opposition.
2. Biographical Directory of the United States Congress — Crumpacker (C000960): the South Bend birth of 13 February 1917, the schools and degrees, the Army Air Corps service, the House terms, the Superior Court judgeship 1977–85, the South Bend death of 14 October 1986.
3. Biographical Directory of the United States Congress — Nimtz (N000110): the South Bend birth of 1 December 1915, the Indiana degrees, the Army service and the Nuremberg staff months, the 1947 and 1948 races, the House term, the Redevelopment Commission presidency from 1974, the South Bend death of 6 December 1990.