Representative John R. Irwin View All Years

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Compiled Historical Information

Date of Death: 8/10/1959

Birth Place: Keokuk, Iowa

Birth County: Keokuk

Party Affiliation: Republican

Assemblies Served:
House: 43 (1929)
46 (1935) - 49 (1941)

Home County: Lee

Family Members Who Served in the Iowa Legislature: Father: John N. Irwin; GAs 16, 19; Grandfather: John W. Rankin; GAs 7, 8

Speaker Video:

John R. Irwin

Lee County

JOHN RANKIN IRWIN, former businessman, state representative, civic official, and community leader died at his home in Keokuk, Iowa August 10, 1959; born of a distinguished Iowa family in Keokuk August 24, 1883, the son of John Nichol and Mary Love Rankin Irwin; attended the local public schools, entered Lawrenceville Preparatory School in Lawrenceville, New Jersey in 1899, graduating in 1902, and received his bachelor of letters degree from Princeton University in 1906; began the study of law in the offices of Ralston & Siddons in Washington, D. C., that fall, attending classes at the National University law school there at the same time; returned to Keokuk the next year to work as a clerk with the Irwin & Phillips Dry Goods Company, established by his grandfather, Stephen Irwin in 1856; became a director of the company in 1908, was subsequently made secretary, and served in both capacities until 1927; traveled widely with his parents meeting many eminent personalities of the day; married Florence V. Johnstone of Keokuk July 9, 1909; enlisted during World War I and took officer’s training at the University of Iowa in the summer of 1917, but was rejected for active service because of his eyesight; became a director in the Keokuk Savings Bank and Trust Company, a trustee of the Keokuk public library, president of the Keokuk Country Club; and director of the Y.M.C.A. in Keokuk; a republican, was elected state representative from Lee County in 1928; appointed postmaster of Keokuk by President Herbert Hoover in 1929, and spent the remainder of his life in public service; again returned to the Iowa house of representatives in 1934, 1936, and 1938, being elected speaker in the Forty-eighth General Assembly; was a member of the Elks Club, and an elder in the Westminster Presbyterian Church; survived by his wife and two sons, Alexander Johnstone of Chicago, and John N. Irwin II of Washington and New York, deputy secretary of defense for international affairs.

House District 1