William G. Batchelder III (December 19, 1942 – February 12, 2022) was an American politician who was the 101st Speaker of the Ohio House of Representatives, serving from 2011 to 2014. He also represented the 69th District of the

Ohio House of Representatives The Ohio House of Representatives is the lower house of the Ohio General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Ohio; the other house of the bicameral legislature being the Ohio Senate. The House of Representatives first met in ...

from 2007 to 2014, and served in the House from 1969 to 1998 previously. He was a Republican.

Early life and legal career

Batchelder was born in

Medina, Ohio Medina ( ) is a city in Medina County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. The population was 26,094 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. It lies about south of Cleveland and west of Akron, Ohio, Akron within the Cleveland met ...

, and grew up in the town, graduating from Medina High School. He earned his undergraduate degree in history at

Ohio Wesleyan University Ohio Wesleyan University (abbrevriated OWU) is a private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Delaware, Ohio, United States. It was founded in 1842 by Methodist leaders and Ohio Valley, Centra ...

and his J.D. from the Ohio State University College of Law. In

law school A law school (also known as a law centre/center, college of law, or faculty of law) is an institution, professional school, or department of a college or university specializing in legal education, usually involved as part of a process for b ...

he was a member of the

moot court Moot court is a co-curricular activity at many law schools. Participants take part in simulated court or arbitration proceedings, usually involving drafting memorials or memoranda and participating in oral argument. In many countries, the phrase ...

team. He began his public service career as an aide to and protege of the late Ohio Lt. Governor John W. Brown, who was from his home town of Medina. Batchelder was elected to the

while on

active duty Active duty, in contrast to reserve duty, is a full-time occupation as part of a military force. Indian The Indian Armed Forces are considered to be one of the largest active service forces in the world, with almost 1.42 million Active Standin ...

with the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary Land warfare, land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of th ...

. He served in the office of the Judge Advocate General at the headquarters of the Third Army in

Fort McPherson Fort McPherson was a U.S. Army military base located in Atlanta, Georgia, bordering the northern edge of the city of East Point, Georgia. It was the headquarters for the U.S. Army Installation Management Command, Southeast Region; the U.S. Ar ...

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

; he was

honorably discharged A military discharge is given when a member of the armed forces is released from their obligation to serve. Each country's military has different types of discharge. They are generally based on whether the persons completed their training and the ...

in 1974. Batchelder practiced law in Medina, Ohio for 31 years with the law firm of Williams & Batchelder. His practice focused on

personal injury Personal injury is a legal term for an Injury (law), injury to the body, mind, or emotions, as opposed to an injury to property. In common law, common law jurisdictions the term is most commonly used to refer to a type of tort lawsuit in which the ...

defense litigation,

corporate law Corporate law (also known as company law or enterprise law) is the body of law governing the rights, relations, and conduct of persons, companies, organizations and businesses. The term refers to the legal practice of law relating to corpora ...

probate In common law jurisdictions, probate is the judicial process whereby a will is "proved" in a court of law and accepted as a valid public document that is the true last testament of the deceased; or whereby, in the absence of a legal will, the e ...

, and

estate planning Estate planning is the process of anticipating and arranging for the management and disposal of a person's Estate (law), estate during the person's life in preparation for future incapacity or death. The planning includes the bequest of assets to ...

. Batchelder was elected to the Medina County

Court of Common Pleas A court of common pleas is a common kind of court structure found in various common law jurisdictions. The form originated with the Court of Common Pleas at Westminster, which was created to permit individuals to press civil grievances against one ...

and served briefly on that court before Governor

Bob Taft Robert Alphonso Taft III (born January 8, 1942) is an American politician and attorney who served as the 67th governor of Ohio from 1999 to 2007. A member of the Taft family, Taft political dynasty and Republican Party (United States), Republic ...

appointed him to the Ninth District

Ohio Court of Appeals The Ohio District Courts of Appeals are the intermediate appellate courts of the U.S. state of Ohio. The Ohio Constitution provides for courts of appeals that have jurisdiction to review final appealable orders. There are twelve appellate district ...

. Batchelder was elected to the appellate bench in November 2000. He served as presiding judge from January 2000 to December 2001. He had been selected by the

Supreme Court of Ohio The Supreme Court of the State of Ohio is the highest court in the U.S. state of Ohio, with final authority over interpretations of Ohio law and the Ohio Constitution. The court has seven members, a chief justice and six associate justices, ...

to serve on the Ohio Board of Bar Examiners. He was the recipient of the Ohio State Bar Public Service Award and an honorary graduate of the University of Akron School of Law. Batchelder had been a member of the Criminal Justice Advisory Board, Office of Criminal Justice Services, Ohio Court of Appeals Association and the Ohio, Akron, Lorain County, Medina County, and Wayne County Bar Associations. He served as an adjunct professor of law at the University of Akron School of Law and at the College of Urban Affairs of

Cleveland State University Cleveland State University (CSU) is a public research university in Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It was established in 1964 and opened for classes in 1965 after acquiring the entirety of Fenn College, a private school that had been in oper ...

Ohio House of Representatives

Batchelder served in the

for more than 30 years, serving as chairman of the Joint Committee on Ethics and Vice-Chairman of the Criminal Justice Committee, as well as

ranking member In United States politics, a ranking member is the most senior member of a congressional or state legislative committee from the minority party. On many committees the ranking minority member, along with the Chair, serve as ''ex officio'' members ...

at various times on the House Judiciary Committee and House Financial Institutions Committee. From 1995 to 1998, Batchelder served as Speaker Pro Tempore of the House and Vice-Chairman of the Reference and Rules Committee. During the

Savings and Loan Crisis The savings and loan crisis of the 1980s and 1990s (commonly dubbed the S&L crisis) was the failure of approximately a third of the savings and loan associations (S&Ls or thrifts) in the United States between 1986 and 1995. These thrifts were b ...

in the 1980s, Batchelder worked with Democratic

Governor A governor is an politician, administrative leader and head of a polity or Region#Political regions, political region, in some cases, such as governor-general, governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the ...

Dick Celeste Richard Frank Celeste (born November 11, 1937) is an American former diplomat, university administrator and politician from Ohio. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the 64th governor of Ohio from 1983 to 1991 and remains the last Dem ...

to draft legislation to save depositors' savings at stricken

Savings and loan association A savings and loan association (S&L), or thrift institution, is a financial institution that specializes in accepting savings deposits and making mortgage and other loans. While the terms "S&L" and "thrift" are mainly used in the United States, ...

s, causing Celeste to thank Batchelder during his

State of the State State most commonly refers to: * State (polity), a centralized political organization that regulates law and society within a territory **Sovereign state, a sovereign polity in international law, commonly referred to as a country **Nation state, a ...

speech. During the pay-to-play scandal of the mid 1990s, as chair of the Joint Committee on Ethics, Batchelder referred both the Republican President of the

Ohio Senate The Ohio Senate is the upper house of the Ohio General Assembly. The State Senate, which meets in the Ohio Statehouse in Columbus, first convened in 1803. Senators are elected for four year terms, staggered every two years such that half of t ...

and the Democratic Ohio Speaker of the House to a prosecutor; both were

convicted In law, a conviction is the determination by a court of law that a defendant is guilty of a crime. A conviction may follow a guilty plea that is accepted by the court, a jury trial in which a verdict of guilty is delivered, or a trial by jud ...

. He is the only ethics committee chair ever to have referred the heads of both legislative chambers to a prosecutor. After leaving the bench in 2005, Batchelder again was elected to the state House of Representatives in 2006, defeating Jack Schira.

He would be reelected in 2008. By 2009, Batchelder was serving as Minority Leader, and when Republicans retook the Ohio House in 2010, he was elected as the 101st Speaker of the Ohio House of Representatives. He would remain as Speaker for the 130th Ohio General Assembly, and was term-limited in 2014.

Personal life and death

Batchelder was married to Judge

Alice M. Batchelder Alice M. Moore Batchelder (born August 15, 1944) is an American attorney and jurist. She is currently a Senior status, senior United States federal judge, United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. She ...

(née Moore), currently a

federal judge Federal judges are judges appointed by a federal level of government as opposed to the state/provincial/local level. United States A U.S. federal judge is appointed by the U.S. president and confirmed by the U.S. Senate in accordance with Arti ...

on the

United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit (in case citations, 6th Cir.) is a federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the district courts in the following districts: * Eastern District of Kentucky * Western District of K ...

. They were married in 1966 and had two children. He died at a retirement community in Medina on February 12, 2022, at the age of 79.

Electoral history

References

External links

Batchelder for Ohio
campaign site
William G. Batchelder's file
at

PolitiFact PolitiFact.com is an American nonprofit project operated by the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Florida, with offices there and in Washington, D.C. It began in 2007 as a project of the ''Tampa Bay Times'' (then the ''St. Petersburg Times ...

Ohio
Profile
at the Court of Appeals of Ohio, Ninth Appellate District

collected news and commentary at ''

The Plain Dealer ''The Plain Dealer'' is the major newspaper of Cleveland, Ohio; it is a major national newspaper. In the fall of 2019, it ranked 23rd in U.S. newspaper circulation, a significant drop since March 2013, when its circulation ranked 17th daily an ...

'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Batchelder, William G. 1942 births 2022 deaths 20th-century American lawyers American Anglicans Christians from Ohio Cleveland State University faculty Judges of the Ohio District Courts of Appeals Military personnel from Ohio Ohio State University Moritz College of Law alumni Ohio Wesleyan University alumni Ohio lawyers People from Medina, Ohio Speakers of the Ohio House of Representatives Republican Party members of the Ohio House of Representatives 21st-century members of the Ohio General Assembly United States Army soldiers University of Akron faculty 20th-century members of the Ohio General Assembly