Robert W. McCarthy (May 28, 1924 – March 19, 2015) was an American politician in the state of

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Roc ...

. McCarthy attended Lincoln College and the

University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Unive ...

, earning a law degree. At the University of Illinois, he also played on the football team. He also served with the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. McCarthy then practiced law in

Decatur, Illinois Decatur ( ) is the largest city and the county seat of Macon County in the U.S. state of Illinois, with a population of 70,522 as of the 2020 Census. The city was founded in 1829 and is situated along the Sangamon River and Lake Decatur in ...

(McCarthy, Rowden & Baker). He also was secretary-treasurer of the Arcade Loan Company and Lincoln Speedway, Inc., and a public administrator and sewer attorney in Logan County and the city of Lincoln respectively. He was elected as a Democrat to the

Illinois House of Representatives The Illinois House of Representatives is the lower house of the Illinois General Assembly. The body was created by the first Illinois Constitution adopted in 1818. The House under the current constitution as amended in 1980 consists of 118 re ...

in 1954 to serve the Decatur area, serving until 1961. In 1960, McCarthy was elected to the 28th Senatorial district, from which he was re-elected in 1964. He was redistricted into the 50th Senatorial District, from he was re-elected in 1966 and 1970. Finally, he was redistricted once more, into the 51st Senatorial District, from which he was re-elected in 1972. He would serve there until 1977, after losing a re-election bid in 1976 to Republican Decatur Mayor James H. Rupp. He returned to law practice after his legislative career.http://www.law-mrb.com/profiles.htm

References

1924 births 2015 deaths Democratic Party Illinois state senators Democratic Party members of the Illinois House of Representatives People from Lincoln, Illinois Illinois Fighting Illini football players United States Army personnel of World War II Lincoln College (Illinois) alumni Illinois lawyers 20th-century American lawyers {{Illinois-Ilrepresentative-stub