Earl Chudoff (November 15, 1907 – May 17, 1993) was an American lawyer and jurist who served five terms as a Democratic member of the

U.S. House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Article One of th ...

from

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

from 1949 to 1958.

Early life and career

Earl Chudoff was born in

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

. He graduated from the

Wharton School The Wharton School ( ) is the business school of the University of Pennsylvania, a private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia. Established in 1881 through a donation from Joseph Wharton, a co-founder of Bethlehem Steel, the Wharton ...

of the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

economics Economics () is a behavioral science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interac ...

in 1929 and from the

University of Pittsburgh School of Law The University of Pittsburgh School of Law (Pitt Law) is the law school of the University of Pittsburgh, a public research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1895 and became a charter member of the Association of American ...

in 1932. He worked as a building and loan examiner for the Pennsylvania State Department of Banking from 1936 to 1939.

World War II

He served as chief boatswain's mate in the

United States Coast Guard Reserve The United States Coast Guard Reserve is the reserve component of the United States Coast Guard. It is organized, trained, administered, and supplied under the direction of the Commandant of the Coast Guard through the Assistant Commandant for ...

from December 1942 to September 1945.

Political career

He was a member of the

Pennsylvania State House of Representatives The Pennsylvania House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameral Pennsylvania General Assembly, the legislature of the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. There are 203 members, elected for two-year terms from single member districts. It ...

from 1941 to 1948.

Congress

Chudoff was elected as a Democrat to the Eighty-first Congress, defeating incumbent Republican Congressman Franklin J. Maloney, and was re-elected to the four succeeding Congresses, beginning on January 3, 1949. He resigned on January 5, 1958, having been elected judge of the

Pennsylvania Courts of Common Pleas In Pennsylvania, the courts of common pleas are the trial courts of the Unified Judicial System of Pennsylvania (the state court system). The courts of common pleas are the trial courts of general jurisdiction in the state. The name derives f ...

No. 1 (defeating the incumbent, Joseph L. Kun in the 1957 election). He served in that capacity until his resignation in 1974.

Death

He died in Philadelphia in 1993.

References