Richard Vander Veen | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromMichigan's5th district | |
| In office February 18, 1974 – January 3, 1977 | |
| Preceded by | Gerald Ford |
| Succeeded by | Harold S. Sawyer |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1922-11-26)November 26, 1922 Grand Rapids,Michigan, U.S. |
| Died | March 3, 2006(2006-03-03) (aged 83) |
| Party | Democratic |
| Alma mater | University of South Carolina (B.S.) Harvard Law School (LL.B.) |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |  United States of America |
| Branch/service |  United States Army |
| Years of service | 1941–1946, 1950-1952 |
| Rank | Junior Lieutenant |
| Battles/wars | World War II • South Pacific Theater Korean War |
Richard Franklin Vander Veen (November 26, 1922 – March 3, 2006) was a politician from theU.S. state ofMichigan.
Born inGrand Rapids, Michigan, Vander Veen attended the local public schools and graduated fromMuskegon High School in 1940. He earned aBS from theUniversity of South Carolina in 1946 and anLL.B. fromHarvard Law School in 1949. He was admitted to the Michiganbar in 1949 and commenced practice in Grand Rapids. In 1951, he, Walter Freihofer and George Cook formed what was to become the third-largest law firm in Grand Rapids. He retired from the law firm when he was elected to Congress. He is a relative of musician Anthony Kiedis.
With the outbreak ofWorld War II, Vander Veen enlisted in theUnited States Navy in January 1941 and served until 1946, seeing active duty in theSouth Pacific Theater. He also served in theKorean War from 1950 to 1952 with the rank oflieutenant (junior grade).
In 1958, Vander Veen made an unsuccessful bid as theDemocratic Party candidate to unseat incumbentRepublicanU.S. RepresentativeGerald Ford inMichigan's 5th congressional district. He became chair of the Michigan Fifth District Democratic Party in 1959 and was an unsuccessful candidate in the Democratic primary election forLieutenant Governor of Michigan in 1960, losing toT. John Lesinski. He was chairman of the Michigan State Democratic Convention in 1960, and was a delegate to the state conventions in 1962 and 1964. He served on the Michigan State Mental Health Commission, 1958–1963, and the Michigan State Highway Commission, 1964–1969. In 1969, he was elected to theEast Grand Rapids Board of Education.
After Gerald Ford resigned his House seat in 1973 to becomeVice President of the United States, Vander Veen was elected in a special election on February 18, 1974, to fill Ford's seat in the93rd Congress. Vander Veen's election was seen as a stunning upset in what had historically been one of the most Republican urbanized districts in the country. The Republican candidate,Robert VanderLaan, was the Republican leader of theMichigan Senate and, up to that point, had never lost an election. Vander Veen turned the election into a referendum on the increasingly unpopularU.S. PresidentRichard Nixon. He stopped campaigning directly against his opponent, and instead took out newspaper advertisements "in which he promised to do his utmost to dislodge Nixon and turn the presidency over to Ford, a political folk hero in the district."[1] This upset caused a panic in the Republican Party leadership, as it appeared to foreshadow more losses for the party in the November elections.[2][3] Political analystLarry Sabato writes in hisCrystal Ball newsletter that Vander Veen's capture of Ford's district, long thought to be solidly Republican, after Ford had been elevated to the Vice Presidency was an electrifying victory that foreshadowed the DemocraticWatergate landslide of November 1974.[4](see also1974 Midterm Senate andHouse elections)
Vander Veen was reelected in November 1974 to a full term in the94th Congress, but lost his seat in 1976 to Republican Kent County prosecuting attorneyHarold S. Sawyer. His 35-month tenure was the only time that the Grand Rapids-based district was out of Republican hands from 1913 untilHillary Scholten won the seat, by now renumbered as the 3rd district, in 2022.
In 1978, Vander Veen ran for theUnited States Senate, but lost his bid for the Democratic nomination toCarl Levin, who went on to win the general election in November.
Vander Veen formed two environmental companies:Resource Energy andEnigered. In 1990, he founded the Ryerson Library Foundation, and served as its president.
After his service in Congress, Vander Veen served as a member of the Michigan State Waterways Commission. Vander Veen died ofprostate cancer at his home in East Grand Rapids at the age of 83.
| U.S. House of Representatives | ||
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| Preceded by | Member of the U.S. House of Representatives fromMichigan's 3rd congressional district 1974–1977 | Succeeded by |
| International | |
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| National | |
| People | |
| Other | |
