Robert B. Chiperfield

Oil painting of Robert B. Chiperfield

Robert Bruce Chiperfield (November 20, 1899 – April 9, 1971) was a U.S. Representative from Illinois, son of Burnett Mitchell Chiperfield.

Born in Canton, Illinois, Chiperfield was educated in the public schools of Canton, Illinois, Washington, D.C., and at Phillips Exeter Academy, Exeter, New Hampshire. He served as a private during the First World War. He attended Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois. He graduated from Harvard College in 1922 and from the law department of Boston University in 1925. He was admitted to the bar in 1925 and commenced practice in Canton, Illinois. He was the city attorney of Canton, Illinois.

Chiperfield was elected as a Republican to the Seventy-sixth and to the eleven succeeding Congresses (January 3, 1939 – January 3, 1963).

A confidential 1943 analysis of the House Foreign Affairs Committee by Isaiah Berlin for the British Foreign Office described Chiperfield as^[1]

An out-and-out pre-Pearl Harbour Isolationist. One of the four Republican members who constitute the real Opposition in the committee. Suspicious of the President and of the executive's alleged attempts to bypass and undermine Congressional authority. A sour and intransigent figure. In close relations with the Chicago Tribune. A Congregationalist; age 44. Nationalist.

Chiperfield served as chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs (Eighty-third Congress). He was not a candidate for renomination in 1962 to the Eighty-eighth Congress.

He resided in Canton, Illinois, until his death there, April 9, 1971. He was interred in Greenwood Cemetery.

References

1. Hachey, Thomas E. (Winter 1973–1974). "American Profiles on Capitol Hill: A Confidential Study for the British Foreign Office in 1943" (PDF). Wisconsin Magazine of History. 57 (2): 141–153. JSTOR 4634869. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-10-21.

• United States Congress. "Robert B. Chiperfield (id: C000365)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.

 This article incorporates public domain material from the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress website http://bioguide.congress.gov.