Richard Furlong Mitchell (October 11, 1889 – August 2, 1969)Former Iowa Supreme Court Judge Dies
, ''Sioux City Journal'' (August 3, 1969), p. 8. was the chief justice of the

Iowa Supreme Court The Iowa Supreme Court is the highest court in the U.S. state of Iowa. The Court is composed of a chief justice and six associate justices. The Court holds its regular sessions in Des Moines in the Iowa Judicial Branch Building located at 1111 ...

in 1934.

Early life and Legal career

Born in

Fort Dodge, Iowa Fort Dodge is a city in and the county seat of Webster County, Iowa, United States, along the Des Moines River. The population was 24,871 in the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, a decrease from 25,136 in 2000 United States Census, 2000. F ...

, he was the son of Sarah A. (née Furlong) and Peter M. Mitchell. He was one of six children. He graduated from

Iowa state Iowa State University of Science and Technology (Iowa State University, Iowa State, or ISU) is a public land-grant research university in Ames, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1858 as the Iowa Agricultural College and Model Farm, Iowa State be ...

law school in 1913. He spent much of the next 19 years of his career in private practice at Fort Dodge. From 1924 to 1931, he was a Democratic State Central Committee member. In 1929, he was a Democratic National committeeman. He married Mirian Reynolds. They had two daughters.

Iowa Supreme Court

He was elected from Webster County on December 6, 1932, after Justice William L. Bliss resigned from the court. During that time, he authored 465 opinions. He also served as chief justice for part of his time. He left the court in 1942 and was replaced by John E. Mulroney.

Post Court

After he left the court, he returned to his private practice in Fort Dodge. During World War Two, he was a labor mediator for President

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), also known as FDR, was the 32nd president of the United States, serving from 1933 until his death in 1945. He is the longest-serving U.S. president, and the only one to have served ...

, and then President

Harry S. Truman Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884December 26, 1972) was the 33rd president of the United States, serving from 1945 to 1953. As the 34th vice president in 1945, he assumed the presidency upon the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt that year. Subsequen ...

. In the 1944 Iowa gubernatorial election, Mitchell was the Democratic nominee for governor of Iowa. He received 43.61 percent of the vote, and lost to republican Robert D. Blue. In 1946, Truman appointed Mitchell to the

Interstate Commerce Commission The Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) was a regulatory agency in the United States created by the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887. The agency's original purpose was to regulate railroads (and later Trucking industry in the United States, truc ...

, and was the chairman of it from 1954 to 1957. He retired in 1959. Mitchell died at his home in

Chevy Chase, Maryland Chevy Chase () is the colloquial name of an area that includes a town, several incorporated villages, and an unincorporated census-designated place in southern Montgomery County, Maryland; and one adjoining neighborhood in northwest Washington, D ...

, at the age of 79. His funeral was in

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

, and he is buried in Gate of heaven cemetery, in Maryland. His grandson is comedian and actor

Jim Gaffigan James Christopher Gaffigan (born July 7, 1966) is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, and producer. His material often addresses fatherhood, laziness, food, religion, and general observations. He is regarded as a "clean" comic, using l ...

.Stated on ''

Finding Your Roots ''Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr.'' is an American documentary television series hosted by Henry Louis Gates Jr. that premiered on March 25, 2012, on PBS. In each episode, celebrities are presented with a "book of life" that is com ...

'', February 2, 2021.

References

External links

* 1889 births 1969 deaths People from Fort Dodge, Iowa Justices of the Iowa Supreme Court 20th-century Iowa state court judges People of the Interstate Commerce Commission {{Iowa-state-judge-stub