Print
Permanent LinkSenator William C. Ratcliff View All Years
WILLIAM C. RATCLIFF
MR. PRESIDENT: Your committee, appointed to prepare suitable resolutions commemorating the life, character and public service of the late Honorable William C. Ratcliff, former member of the General Assembly of Iowa, begs leave to submit the following:
William C. Ratcliff was born in Humboldt county, Iowa, on May 3, 1881, and died on April 16, 1939, at Council Bluffs, Iowa.
He was graduated from the Rolfe high school in 1897, and thereafter attended the law school at the State University of Iowa, from which he was graduated in 1904.
He moved to Montgomery county, Iowa, locating first at Villisca and later moving to Red Oak, where he practiced law in the office of R. W. Beeson. In 1906 he was elected to the office of county attorney of Montgomery county and continued in that capacity until January, 1915, a period of eight years.
On February 20, 1909, he was married to May I. Wright of Cedar Falls, and to this union were born three children, one of whom died in infancy.
In 1916 he was elected to the Iowa Senate on the Republican ticket and represented the Eighth Senatorial District in the Thirty-seventh and Thirty-eighth General Assemblies. On June 15, 1924, he was appointed a Judge of the Fifteenth Judicial District by Governor Kendall and acted in that capacity until August 24, 1929, when he tendered his resignation to Governor Hammill. In 1928 he was a candidate for Congress from the Seventh Congressional District, there being five candidates, none of whom received the necessary thirty-five per cent to nominate. In the congressional convention held at Atlantic he was a strong contender and after more than two hundred ballots were cast he withdrew his candidacy, as he said, to promote party harmony. He presided at the congressional convention held in Red Oak in 1938.
Judge Ratcliff was active in community affairs, an elder in the Presbyterian Church, a director of the Houghton State Bank, served as a director in an insurance association, and was a past president of the Iowa State Bar Association. He found time for politics, legislative service, the state university, and the practice of law. He possessed a genial personality and was respected and admired by those who knew him. His counsel and advice were sought by those in public life.
Be It Therefore Resolved, That the State of Iowa has, in the death of Judge William C. Ratcliff, lost one of its most admired and respected citizens, and that we tender to his beloved wife our sincere sympathy.
Be It Further Resolved, That a copy of this resolution be spread upon the Journal of the Senate, and that the secretary be instructed to send an enrolled copy to the wife of the deceased.
K. A. EVANS,
O. J. KIRKETEG,
CARL O. SJULIN,
Committee.
The resolution was unanimously adopted.