district residence predecessor successor death_date birth_place death_place party state_house birth_date term_start spouse article_title term_end name alma_mater
24th pittsburgh , pennsylvania erroll b. davis william w. pendleton 7 november 2013 pittsburgh , pennsylvania susquehanna township , dauphin county , pennsylvania democratic pennsylvania august 14 , 1947 january 2 , 1973 linda rhodes -lrb- divorced -rrb- joseph rhodes , jr. .
 november 19 , 1980 joseph rhodes , jr. . california institute of technology harvard university
joseph rhodes , jr. .

joseph rhodes , jr. -lrb- august 14 , 1947 -- november 7 , 2013 -rrb- was an american politician and activist .
from 1972 -- 1980 , he served four 2-year terms as a member of the pennsylvania house of representatives .
he was a commissioner of the pennsylvania public utility commission from 1988 -- 1995 .
he served as a member of several public panels , including the president 's commission on campus unrest that investigated the fatal shootings of unarmed student protesters by soldiers and police in 1970 at kent state and jackson state universities .
rhodes ' father was an african-american who served as a us soldier in the philippines during world war ii .
rhodes ' mother , a woman of filipino/chinese descent , met his father there in 1945 and married him .
the couple settled in pittsburgh .
rhodes attended pittsburgh public schools .
from 1965-1969 rhodes was an undergraduate at the california institute of technology , and he received a b.s. in history in 1969 .
rhodes served two terms as the president of the student body .
he was in residence at harvard university from 1969 -- 1972 as a junior fellow of the harvard society of fellows , where he researched racism in victorian england .
rhodes then held a number of teaching positions at the university of massachusetts , california state college and the university of pittsburgh .
he was also employed at the jet propulsion laboratory in 1967 , and served as a staff researcher for the ford foundation 1969-1970 .
after 1968 rhodes served on a number of national commissions studying such diverse subjects as the causes of campus unrest and the need for new structures in higher education .
he was a consultant to the office of the secretary , department of health , education , and welfare , 1968 -- 1971 .
he was a member of the more effective school personnel utilization -lrb- mespu -rrb- panel in the office of education from 1969-1970 , and a consultant to the president nixon 's counsel from 1969 -- 1970 .
he was a member of president nixon 's committee on voluntary service , 1969 .
he also served on the department of health , education , and welfare secretary 's committee on new structures in higher education -lrb- the newman committee -rrb- -lrb- 1969 -- 1972 -rrb- , and he was on the advisory panel of the national endowment for the humanities , 1971 .
rhodes ' service on the president 's commission on campus unrest in 1970 brought him to nationwide attention .
this commission was established specifically to investigate two incidents in 1970 in which unarmed student protesters were shot and killed by soldiers and policemen , one at kent state university in ohio and a second at jackson state university in mississippi .
rhodes was the youngest and least known member of the committee , and its only current student ; his selection for the commission is attributed to his longstanding relationship with john ehrlichman , who was a prominent member of then president richard nixon 's staff .
shortly after his appointment , rhodes gave a controversial interview to robert reinhold of `` the new york times '' in which he said `` if the president 's and vice-president 's statements are killing people , i want to know that '' and that california governor ronald reagan was `` bent on killing people for his political gain . ''
the following day , vice-president spiro agnew called publicly for rhodes to resign .
rhodes refused , and was a signatory to the commission 's `` scranton report '' in september , 1970 .
rhodes was elected to the pennsylvania house of representatives , 24th legislative district -lrb- allegheny county -rrb- , in 1972 , and was reelected to the house for three successive terms .
in 1977 he sponsored an amendment -lrb- act 41 -rrb- to the juvenile justice act that prohibited incarceration of juveniles in adult jails and that diverted status offenders from the juvenile justice system .
status offenders are those whose crimes derive from the offender 's juvenile status instead of from the criminal act itself ; one example would be violation of a juvenile curfew that bans juveniles from public places during certain hours of the night .
linda rhodes has been quoted as saying that rhodes '' ... considered passage of act 41 as his greatest achievement during his three-terms as a lawmaker . ''
rhodes did not run for a fifth term as a representative .
he sought the democratic party nomination for united states senate in 1980 , but lost substantially in the april , 1980 primary election to former pittsburgh mayor peter f. flaherty .
arlen specter defeated flaherty in the november , 1980 general election .
rhodes then worked as a planner for the westinghouse corporation in pittsburgh for seven years .
in 1987 he was appointed by pennsylvania governor robert p. casey as the deputy commissioner of commerce .
in 1988 he was confirmed by the pennsylvania senate as a commissioner of the pennsylvania public utility commission , and served until 1995 .
he then worked as a consultant for corporations and for the leadership of the pennsylvania house of representatives .
he was cited by `` time magazine '' as one of 200 new leaders in america and received the americans for democratic action national youth award in 1971 .
he was named on the master list of nixon political opponents during his service to the nixon administration , and included this as an award on his resume .
rhodes had been married to linda rhodes , who served from 1987 -- 1994 as the pennsylvania commonwealth 's secretary of aging .
the couple had two children .
