Harless, Richard F. (Richard Fielding), 1905-1970

Richard Fielding Harless was born in Kelsey, Upshur County, Texas on August 6, 1905. The Harless family moved from Texas to Thatcher, Arizona in 1917 where Richard Harless attended grade and high schools and graduated from the University of Arizona at Tucson in 1928. Harless moved to Marana, Arizona where he taught school and coached sports until he graduated from law school at the University of Arizona in 1933. He was admitted to the Arizona Bar in the same year and moved to Phoenix to commence the practice of law.

In Phoenix, Harless served as Assistant City Attorney and was elected Assistant Attorney General of Arizona in 1936. This election began a twenty-year career in Arizona politics. Harless served as Maricopa County Attorney from 1938 to 1942 and was elected to the United States Congress as a Representative in 1943. He served continuously until 1949.

While a member of Congress, Harless served on the House Interstate and Foreign Commerce Committee, participated in a tour of post-World War II American military facilities in Europe, worked closely with Senator Carl Hayden and other members of the Arizona Congressional delegation to obtain a contract with the U.S. Department of the Interior for the Central Arizona Project, and helped secure the right to vote for Native Americans with the 1947 Indian Voting Act. In 1948, Harless refused the Democratic Party's nomination for another term in Congress in order to run for the office of Governor of Arizona. Harless lost the 1948 election, was an unsuccessful candidate for the Democratic nomination for Congress in 1954, and lost the Congressional election of 1960.

Harless returned to Phoenix in 1960, where he practiced law and participated in local Democratic party activities until his death on November 24, 1970 at the age of 53.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774 to Present. http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=H000212

From the guide to the Richard F. Harless Papers, 1932-1984, (Arizona State University Libraries Arizona Collection)