Ross Rizley


Ross Rizley was a United States Representative from Oklahoma and a United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma.

Education and career

Born on a farm near the town of Beaver in Beaver County, Oklahoma, the son of Anabella Narcissus and Robert Martin Rizley, Rizley attended the public schools and taught in the rural schools of Beaver County in 1909 and 1910. He served as a deputy register of deeds in Beaver County in 1911 and 1912. He received a Bachelor of Laws from the Kansas City School of Law in 1915 and was admitted to the bar in Oklahoma the same year. He was in private practice of law in Beaver from 1915 to 1920. He was county attorney of Beaver County from 1918 to 1920. He was in private practice of law in Guymon, Oklahoma from 1920 to 1956. He was a member of the Guymon Board of Education from 1924 to 1932. He was city attorney of Guymon from 1928 to 1938. He was a member of the Oklahoma Senate from 1931 to 1934. He was a candidate for Governor of Oklahoma in the 1938 election. He was a United States Representative from Oklahoma from 1941 to 1949. He was solicitor for the United States Post Office Department in 1953. He was an Assistant United States Secretary of Agriculture from 1953 to 1954. He was Chairman of the Civil Aeronautics Board from 1955 to 1956.

Congressional service

Rizley was elected as a Republican United States Representative to the United States House of Representatives of the 77th United States Congress and of the three succeeding Congresses, serving from January 3, 1941 to January 3, 1949. He was Chairman of the Special Committee on Campaign Expenditures in the 80th United States Congress. He was a delegate to the Republican National Conventions in 1932, 1936, and 1948. Rizley was elected chairman of the credentials committee for the 1952 Republican National Convention, defeating Minnesota delegate Warren E. Burger. He was not a candidate for renomination to the House in 1948 but was unsuccessful for election to the United States Senate.

Federal judicial service

Rizley was nominated by President Dwight D. Eisenhower on February 10, 1956, to a seat on the United States District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma vacated by Judge Edgar Sullins Vaught. He was confirmed by the United States Senate on March 1, 1956, and received his commission on April 13, 1956. On March 26, 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson certified Rizley involuntarily as disabled in accordance with the act of September 2, 1957, 71 Stat. 586, which entitled the President to appoint an additional judge for the court and provided that no successor to the judge certified as disabled be appointed. Rizley continued to render a reduced level of service to the court. His service was terminated on March 4, 1969, due to his death in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. He was interred in Elmhurst Cemetery in Guymon.

Personal

Rizley married Ruby Seal in 1916 and they had seven children, one of whom, Hortense, would become actress Claudia Bryar.