Robert Alphonso Taft Jr. (February 26, 1917 – December 7, 1993) was an American politician and member of the Ohio Taft family. He served as a Republican representative from Ohio between 1963 and 1965, as well as between 1967 and 1971. Taft also served as a U.S. senator between 1971 and 1976.
Early life
Robert Alphonso Taft Jr. was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, on February 26, 1917, the second of four sons born to Robert Alphonso Taft Sr. and Martha Wheaton Bowers. Robert Jr.'s paternal grandparents were President William Howard Taft and First Lady Helen Louise "Nellie" Herron while his maternal grandparents were Lloyd Wheaton Bowers (Solicitor General of the United States from 1909 to 1910) and Louisa Bennett Wilson. His older brother was William Howard Taft III, who served as Ambassador to Ireland from 1953 to 1957, while his younger brothers were Lloyd Bowers Taft, who worked as an investment banker in Cincinnati, and Horace Dwight Taft, who became a professor of physics and dean at Yale. Taft graduated from Yale University in 1939 and Harvard Law School in 1942.
- Sarah Butler Taft
- Deborah Taft
- Jonathan Duncan Taft.
After Blanca's death, Robert Jr. remarried to Katherine Longworth Whittaker, widow of his distant cousin David Gibson Taft. They divorced in 1977 and in October 1978, he married Joan McKelvy, also of Cincinnati. Joan died on January 16, 2015.