John Main Coffee | |
|---|---|
 Coffee as depicted in thePictorial Directory of the79th Congress | |
| Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromWashington's6th district | |
| In office January 3, 1937 – January 3, 1947 | |
| Preceded by | Wesley Lloyd |
| Succeeded by | Thor C. Tollefson |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1897-01-23)January 23, 1897 Tacoma, Washington, U.S. |
| Died | June 2, 1983(1983-06-02) (aged 86) |
| Political party | Democratic |
John Main Coffee (January 23, 1897 – June 2, 1983) was aU.S. Representative fromWashington.
John Coffee was born inTacoma, Washington and attended the public schools. He then attended theUniversity of Washington in Seattle, earning an A.B. and LL.B., 1920 and graduated from the law department ofYale Law School, J.D., in 1921.
He wasadmitted to the bar in 1922 and commenced practice as a lawyer inTacoma, Washington.
In 1922, Coffee was appointed Secretary toUnited States SenatorC.C. Dill until 1924. He then became Secretary of the Advisory Board of the National Recovery Administration, 1933-1935.
Coffee also served as Appraiser and examiner ofPierce County, Washington for the State Inheritance Tax and Escheat Division from 1933 to 1936 as well as Civil service commissioner for Tacoma, Washington, in 1936.
Coffee was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1936 as aDemocrat and served inSeventy-fifth and to the four succeeding Congresses (January 3, 1937 – January 3, 1947).
On August 13, 1937, Rep. Coffee introduced a bill to create a permanent Federal Bureau of Fine Arts with six departments: theatre, dance, music, literature, graphic and plastic arts, and architecture and decoration. A similar bill was introduced in the Senate by Florida SenatorClaude Pepper. Opera singerLawrence Tibbett chaired a citizens' committee promoting the bill, which was supported byRobert Montgomery,Theodore Dreiser,Lillian Gish,Martha Graham,Rockwell Kent,Hendrik Willem van Loon, andSherwood Anderson, among others.[1]Frank Lloyd Wright also supported the bill.[2] The bill was opposed by sculptorGutzon Borglum and composerWalter Damrosch.[3] The Fine Arts Federation of New York called the bill an attempt to unionize artists, warning that it would sap their creative spirit, and the advent of World War II led to its abandonment.[4]
In 1946 it was revealed during theGarsson/May investigation that Coffee had accepted a $2500 check from aTacoma contractor in 1941 and failed to list it as acampaign contribution. Coffee promised not to accept such gifts in the future.[5]
Coffee was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1946 to theEightieth Congress when he was defeated by RepublicanThor Tollefson. Coffee would also run losing races in 1950 for theEighty-second Congress and in 1958 to theEighty-sixth Congress.
Coffee then became a practicing attorney in Tacoma, Washington, until his death in June 1983.
Coffee's son,John Main Coffee Jr. (November 20, 1928 – May 8, 2012), was aUnitarian minister and a longtime professor of history atEmerson College inBoston,Massachusetts, and coauthoredACentury of Eloquence: the history of Emerson College, 1880-1980. He was also editor ofThe Fare Box, a publication from theAmerican Vecturist Association.[6]
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| Preceded by | Member of the U.S. House of Representatives fromWashington's 6th congressional district 1937-1947 | Succeeded by |
This article incorporatespublic domain material fromBiographical Directory of the United States Congress.Federal government of the United States.
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