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

MORTON Rogers Clark Ballard , a Representative from Maryland; born in Louisville, Jefferson County, Ky., September 19, 1914; attended the public schools and Woodberry Forest School, Orange, Va.; A.B., Yale University, New Haven, Conn., 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 until his resignation on January 29, 1971 (January 3, 1963-January 29, 1971); Secretary of the Interior in the Cabinet of President Gerald R. Ford, January 29, 1971-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 Presqu'ile, 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