Rogers Clark Ballard MORTON, Congress, MD (1914-1979)

MORTON, Rogers Clark Ballard, (brother of Thruston B. Morton), a Representative from Maryland; born in Louisville, Jefferson County, Ky., September 19, 1914; attended the public schools and Woodberry Forest School, Orange, Va.; Yale University, A.B., 1937; engaged in food business, 1938-1951 with exception of military service; served in Armored Field Artillery, United States Army, from private to captain, 1941-1945, and served in the European Theater; president of Ballard and Ballard Co., 1947-1951; farmer and beef cattle feeding operator, Talbot County, Md.; delegate, floor manager, Republican National Convention, 1968; chairman, Republican National Committee, April 1969 to January 1971; elected as a Republican to the Eighty-eighth Congress; reelected to the four succeeding Congresses, and served from January 3, 1963, until his resignation on January 29, 1971, to become Secretary of the Interior on that date, and served in that capacity until April 30, 1975; Secretary of Commerce from May 1, 1975, to February 2, 1976; Counsellor to President Gerald R. Ford, with cabinet rank for economic and domestic policy matters from February 3, 1976, to March 30, 1976; chairman of President Ford’s campaign committee from March 30, 1976, to November 2, 1976; retired from politics and engaged in boat building on his farm at Presquisle, near Easton, Md., where he died April 19, 1979; interment in Old Wye Cemetery, Wye Mills, Md.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present