Harold Himmel VELDE, Congress, IL (1910-1985)

VELDE, Harold Himmel, a Representative from Illinois; born on a farm near Parkland, Tazewell County, Ill., April 1, 1910; attended rural grade and high schools; student at Bradley University, Peoria, Ill., 1927-1929; was graduated from Northwestern University, Evanston, Ill., in 1931 and from the University of Illinois Law School at Champaign in 1937; athletic coach and teacher of Hillsdale (Ill.) Community High School 1931-1935; was admitted to the bar in 1937 and commenced the practice of law in Pekin, Ill.; served as a private in the Signal Corps of the United States Army in 1942 and 1943; special agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in sabotage and counter-espionage division 1943-1946; elected county judge of Tazewell County in 1946 and served until 1949; elected as a Republican to the Eighty-first and to the three succeeding Congresses (January 3, 1949-January 3, 1957); chairman, Committee on Un-American Activities (Eighty-third Congress); was not a candidate for renomination in 1956; engaged in the practice of law in Urbana, Ill., and Washington, D.C., until May 5, 1969; became regional counsel, General Services Administration, Lansing, Ill., in 1969; was a resident of Sun City, Ariz., from 1974 until his death there September 1, 1985; cremated; ashes interred, Pekin, Ill.

Bibliography

Goodman, Walter. The Committee: The Extraordinary Career of the House Committee on Un-American Activities. New York: Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux, 1968.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present