Merwin Coad facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Merwin Coad
|
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Iowa's 6th district |
|
| In office January 3, 1957 – January 3, 1963 |
|
| Preceded by | James I. Dolliver |
| Succeeded by | Neal Smith (redistricting) |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Doyle Merwin Coad
September 28, 1924 Mitchell County, Kansas, U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouses |
Delores Hale
(m. 1944; div. 1961)Carol Faye Farnsworth
(m. 1961, divorced)Georgette Hill
(m. 1991; div. 1998) |
| Children | 4 |
| Education | Texas Christian University |
| Profession | Minister; later, Lender and Speaker |
Doyle Merwin Coad (born September 28, 1924) is an American who was a minister and later a politician from Iowa. He served in the United States House of Representatives for three terms, from 1957 to 1963.
His election was a big deal because it ended the Republican Party's 14-year streak of holding every U.S. House seat from Iowa. Merwin Coad is a member of the Democratic Party.
He is the last living former U.S. representative who started his term in the 1950s. He is also the last living former member of the United States Congress who served when Dwight D. Eisenhower was president. Merwin Coad turned 100 years old in September 2024.
Contents
Merwin Coad's Early Life and Education
Doyle Merwin Coad was born on a farm in Mitchell County, Kansas. His family later moved to a farm in Nemaha County, Nebraska. He finished high school in Auburn, Nebraska, in 1941.
He went to Peru State Teachers College in Nebraska from 1941 to 1942. He also studied at Phillips University and Texas Christian University, graduating in 1945. He also took classes at Drake University in Iowa.
Becoming a Minister
Coad became a minister for the Disciples of Christ Church in Boone, Iowa, in 1945. He worked as an associate minister in St. Joseph, Missouri, from 1948 to 1949.
He then served as a minister in Lenox, Iowa, from 1949 to 1951. From 1951 to 1956, he was a minister in Boone, Iowa.
Serving in Congress
In 1956, Merwin Coad, a Democrat, ran for Congress. He was running against James I. Dolliver, a Republican who had been in office for six terms. Coad won by a very small number of votes, only 83 out of over 129,000 votes.
This close result led to a recount, which confirmed his win by 198 votes. Dolliver tried to get the U.S. House to change the election results, but he was not successful. Coad was re-elected two more times, serving a total of three terms.
Why Coad Left Politics
After the 1960 census, Iowa lost one of its seats in Congress. This meant that the voting districts had to be redrawn. Coad's home county, Boone, was moved into a different district. This new district was already represented by another popular Democrat, Neal Smith.
On June 8, 1961, Merwin Coad announced that he would leave politics at the end of his term in 1962. He was only 36 years old at the time.
Before his term ended in 1962, Coad thought about running for a different congressional seat. However, he decided not to run in the 1962 election. His time in Congress ended on January 3, 1963.
Life After Congress
In July 1963, Coad started working as a consultant for the Kennedy Administration. He worked for the Agency for International Development. However, he resigned from this job the very next day.
Coad then started working in real estate lending in the Washington D.C. area. He later became a speaker at seminars. These seminars taught people how to buy real estate. Advertisements for these seminars called him "America's most effective and dynamic instructor on real estate."
By the 1990s, Coad lived in Washington, D.C. and Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. He married Georgette Hill in 1991. They later divorced in Florida in 1998. As of 2024, Merwin Coad still lives in Florida. He became one of the few former U.S. Representatives to reach 100 years old.
