Warren A. Taylor

{{Short description|American lawyer and politician}} {{More citations needed|date=June 2009}} {{Infobox state representative | honorific_prefix = | name = Warren A. Taylor | honorific_suffix = | image = | alt = | caption = | speaker = First | state_house = Alaska | term_start2 = 1959 | term_end2 = 1963 | predecessor2 = [[Richard J. Greuel]] | successor2 = [[Bruce Biers Kendall]] | district =  | term_start = 1959 | term_end = 1967 | predecessor =  | successor =  | prior_term = }}

'''Warren Arthur Taylor''' (April 2, 1891 – August 5, 1980) was an American [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]] [[politician]] from [[Alaska]] active during its territorial period and first years of [[U.S. state|statehood]]. He became the first [[Speaker of the Alaska House of Representatives]].

==Personal life== Taylor, a [[Baptist]], was reported born in either [[Chehalis, Washington]] or in the nearby community of [[Curtis, Washington|Curtis]] on April 2, 1891.<ref name="WATUA">{{cite web |title=Warren A. Taylor |url=https://www.alaska.edu/uajourney/history-and-trivia/alaska-history/creating-alaska/constitutional-convention/delegates/taylor/ |publisher=[[University of Alaska]] |access-date=August 28, 2024 |date=March 7, 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Town Talk |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Z4A9AAAAIBAJ& |access-date=August 28, 2024 |work=[[The Chehalis Bee-Nugget]] |date=June 9, 1933 |page=7}}</ref> He grew up in [[Bellingham, Washington]], where he attended grade and high school. In 1909, following high school graduation, he moved to what was then known as the [[District of Alaska]], settling in [[Cordova, Alaska|Cordova]]. After many years of working for the [[Copper River and Northwestern Railway]], he passed the bar and began working as a lawyer.

Taylor moved to [[Kodiak, Alaska|Kodiak]] briefly during the 1940s before settling in [[Fairbanks, Alaska|Fairbanks]], where he lived for the remainder of his life.

==Career==

As a [[lawyer]], he focused on criminal defense law. In one case in 1948, he represented a young civilian employee at [[Ladd Field]] named [[Joseph Vogler]], who sought an injunction against University Bus Lines and its owners Paul and Flora Greimann. Vogler had a public, years-long feud with the Greimanns, centered on their company's practice of having their vehicles straddle the center line of the narrow Cushman Street Bridge.<ref name="Bridge">{{cite news|title='Battle of Bridge' Opens in Court|newspaper=[[Fairbanks Daily News-Miner]]|location=Fairbanks|date=June 28, 1948|page=1}}</ref> That bridge, constructed in 1917, was later replaced with a four-lane bridge.

In other cases, he faced then-U.S. Attorney [[Ted Stevens]], who later became another important Alaska politician. Stevens served as a [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] senator from Alaska from 1968 to 2009, making him the fourth most senior Senator and most senior Republican.

In addition to his professional career, Taylor served multiple terms in Alaska Territorial House of Representatives (from 3rd District 1933–1934, 1945–1946 and from 4th District 1949–1950, 1955–1958). He served from each of the communities he lived in during his years in Alaska (Cordova, then Kodiak, then Fairbanks). He was a delegate to the State Constitutional Convention (1955–1956), serving as one of a handful of delegates elected from the territory at-large.

After Alaska became the 49th State, Taylor was among the first members of the [[Alaska House of Representatives]]. He was selected by Democratic majority to serve as the first speaker of the Alaska House. He held this position from 1959 to 1962.

Taylor ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic nomination for governor of Alaska in 1962, losing to incumbent and fellow constitutional convention delegate [[William A. Egan]]. This meant that he was not a candidate for reelection to his House seat. Nonetheless, he was reelected to the House in 1962, when one of the Fairbanks-area Democratic nominees elected in the primary election vacated his spot in favor of Taylor. He retired from the House in 1966.

==Death== He later moved into the Fairbanks Pioneer Home, where he died on August 5, 1980.<ref name="WATUA"/>

==References== {{reflist}}

==External links== {{Portal|Alaska|Biography}} * [https://w3.akleg.gov/100years/legislature.php?id=1 Warren Taylor] at ''100 Years of Alaska's Legislature''

{{s-start}} {{s-off}} {{succession box |title = [[Speaker of the Alaska House of Representatives]] |before = [[Richard J. Greuel]]<br><small>(as speaker of the<br>[[Alaska Territory|Territorial]] House)</small> |after = [[Bruce Biers Kendall]] |years = 1959–1963 }} {{s-end}}

{{Speakers of the Alaska House of Representatives}} {{Signers of the Constitution of Alaska}} {{Portal bar|Alaska|Biography|Politics|United States}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Taylor, Warren A.}} [[Category:1891 births]] [[Category:1980 deaths]] [[Category:Alaska lawyers]] [[Category:Delegates to Alaska's Constitutional Convention]] [[Category:Members of the Alaska Territorial Legislature]] [[Category:Politicians from Bellingham, Washington]] [[Category:People from Chehalis, Washington]] [[Category:People from Cordova, Alaska]] [[Category:Politicians from Fairbanks, Alaska]] [[Category:Speakers of the Alaska House of Representatives]] [[Category:Democratic Party members of the Alaska House of Representatives]] [[Category:Lawyers from Fairbanks, Alaska]] [[Category:20th-century American lawyers]]