district succeeded death_date death_place religion birth_place image_size party preceded term birth_date article_title state name
5th 7th tom harkin '' district eliminated '' 27 august 2003 council bluffs , iowa christian little falls , new york 180px republican neal e. smith john r. hansen january 3 , 1967 january 3 , 1973 3 , 1973 january 3 , 1975 january march 23 , 1923 william j. scherle
 iowa iowa william j. scherle
william j. scherle

william joseph scherle -lrb- march 14 , 1923august 27 , 2003 -rrb- was a four-term republican u.s. representative from southwestern iowa .
born in little falls , new york , scherle graduated from st. mary 's academy in new york , new york .
he served in the united states navy from 1942 to 1946 , then attended southern methodist university of dallas , texas from 1945 to 1947 .
after briefly serving in 1947 as an assistant division manager with george d. barnard co. of dallas , in 1948 he moved to southwestern iowa , where he became a grain and livestock farmer .
he was also a member of the united states naval reserve from 1947 to 1954 .
scherle served as chair of the mills county republican central committee from 1956 to 1964 .
in 1960 he was elected as a republican to the iowa house of representatives , where he served until 1966 .
in 1966 , scherle was elected to represent iowa 's 7th congressional district in the u.s. house of representatives , unseating one-term democrat john r. hansen .
he was re-elected to that seat in 1968 and 1970 .
when reapportionment resulted in the loss of one congressional district in iowa -lrb- his own -rrb- , he ran and won election to iowa 's 5th congressional district in 1972 , defeating then-unknown democrat tom harkin .
after making a very public and national campaign against the national endowment for the arts , and in particular its funding of the single-word poem `` lighght '' by aram saroyan , scherle found himself campaigned against by many of saroyan 's supporters including george plimpton .
in 1974 , he ran for re-election but was defeated by harkin .
that election left only one republican among iowa 's congressional delegation -- new congressman charles e. grassley .
after losing his re-election bid , scherle served as deputy administrator for the united states department of agriculture from 1975 to 1977 .
he later served as president of a consulting firm in washington , d.c. from 1977 to 1987 .
scherle died in council bluffs , iowa , and was interred in arlington national cemetery .
