Roman Hruska
{{Infobox officeholder
| name=Roman Lee Hruska, Sr.
| image=Roman Hruska of NE.jpg
|office=United States Senator for Nebraska
|party=Republican
|alma_mater=University of Omaha
University of Chicago
Creighton University
|term_start=November 8, 1954
|term_end=December 27, 1976
|preceded=Samuel Williams Reynolds
(interim for Hugh Alfred Butler)
|succeeded=Edward Zorinsky
|office2=Nebraska's 2nd congressional district
|term_start2=January 3, 1953
|term_end2=November 8, 1954
|preceded2=Howard Homan Buffett
(father of financial mogul [[Warren Buffett)
|succeeded2=Jackson B. Chase
|preceded=Samuel W. Reynolds
|succeeded=Edward Zorinsky
|birth_date=August 16, 1904
|birth_place=David City, Nebraska
|death_date=April 25, 1999 (aged 94)
|death_place=Omaha, Butler County
Nebraska
|resting_place=Bohemian Cemetery in Omaha
|alma_mater=University of Nebraska-Omaha
University of Chicago
Creighton University Law School
|occupation=Attorney
|spouse=Victoria Kuncl Hruska
|children=Jana Hruska
Quenton Hruska
Roman Hruska, Jr.
}}
Roman Lee Hruska, Sr. (pronounced HUH ROOSKA) (August 16, 1904 – April 25, 1999) was a Republican member of the United States Senate for his native Nebraska. During the 1960s and 1970s, he was one of the most vocal conservatives in the upper chamber.
Hruska co-founded the Nebraska-based Douglas Theatre Company, the 38th largest cinema chain in North America.
Life and career
Hruska was one of eleven children born in David City in Butler County in east central Nebraska, to Czech immigrant parents. In 1917, his family moved to Omaha in Douglas County, at which he graduated from high school and attended the University of Nebraska-Omaha and the University of Chicago Law School]]. He graduated in 1929 from the Creighton University Law School, a Jesuit institution in downtown Omaha. He returned to Omaha to practice law.[1]
Hruska's political career began In 1944, when he accepted a seat on the Douglas County Board of Commissioners to succeed a friend who had resigned the post. He served as a regular member from 1944 to 1945 and as chairman from 1945 to 1952.[1] During his time on the board of commissioners, Hruska also sat on the advisory committee of the Nebraska Board of Control from 1947 to 1952.[2] He was president of the Nebraska Association of County Officials from 1950 to 1951 and vice president of the National Association of County Officials from 1951 to 1952.[2]
Hruska was elected in 1952 to the Omaha-dominated 2nd congressional district in the United States House of Representatives. He served only part of one term and instead ran for the Senate to fill the vacancy created by the death of Hugh Alfred Butler (1878-1954).[1] Hruska won, and was reelected in 1958, 1964, and 1970 and served in the Senate until his retirement in 1977. His opponent in 1958 and 1970 was the Democrat Frank Brenner Morrison (1905-2004), the governor of Nebraska from 1961 to 1967. Hruska did not run for reelection to a fourth Senate term in 1976 and was succeeded by the Republican-turned-Democrat Edward Zorinsky, who had also followed Hruska in the U.S. House in 1954.
Even after [[U.S. President Richard M. Nixon resigned, Hruska continued to defend him and claimed that Watergate was a partisan effort to attack Nixon.[3]
Hruska is remember for his statement that "even the mediocre need a little representation too" during the Senate defeat of the confirmation of Judge George Harrold Carswell (1919-1992) to the United States Supreme Court. A former segregationist from Georgia and Florida, Carswell's Senate critics had called him "mediocre." The seat then went to the liberal Harry Blackmun of [[Minnesota], the principal author of Roe v. Wade. The complete quote is "Even if he (Carswell) were mediocre, ’there are a lot of mediocre judges and people and lawyers. They are entitled to a little representation, aren’t they, and a little chance? We can’t have all Brandeises, Frankfurters, and [[Benjamin Cardozo|Cardozos.’’[4]Hruska's remarks did not prevent his reelection to the Senate in November 1970, seven months after his "mediocre" statement.
Named in his honor are the Roman L. Hruska U.S. Meat Animal Research Center in Clay Center in Clay County and the Roman L. Hruska Federal Courthouse in Omaha.[5]
Reference
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Richard Pearson (April 27, 1999). Sen. Roman Hruska Dies at 94. The Washington Post. Retrieved on July 6, 2021.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Hruska, Roman Lee (1904-1999). Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. U.S. Congress. Retrieved on July 6, 2021.
- ↑ Hruska dead at 94. The Columbus Telegram (April 26, 1999). Retrieved on April 22, 2018.
- ↑ McCain's "Hruskaism:" The Mediocre People of America Deserve Representation! | HuffPost, accessed July 6, 2021.
- ↑ Roman Lee Hruska (1904-1999) - Find A Grave Memorial, accessed July 6, 2021}}
