63 Facts About Bert Combs

Bertram Thomas Combs was an American jurist and politician from the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

Bert Combs was decorated for prosecuting Japanese war criminals before military tribunals following World War II, then returned to Kentucky and his law practice.

In 1959, Bert Combs was elected governor, defeating Lieutenant Governor Harry Lee Waterfield, Chandler's choice to succeed him in office, in the primary.

Early in his term, Bert Combs secured passage of a three-percent sales tax to pay a bonus to the state's military veterans.

Bert Combs served for three years before resigning and running for governor again in 1971.

Bert Combs lost in the Democratic primary to Wendell Ford, his former executive secretary.

In 1984, Bert Combs agreed to represent sixty-six of the state's poor school districts in a lawsuit challenging the state's system of financing public education.

On December 3,1991, Bert Combs was caught in a flash flood while driving and was killed.

The Bert Combs family is one of the oldest European families in the United States.

Bert Combs was born in the Town Branch section of Manchester, Kentucky on August 13,1911; he was one of seven children of Stephen Gibson and Martha Combs.

Bert Combs's mother was a teacher, and she impressed upon her children the importance of a good education.

Bert Combs excelled academically and skipped some grades, graduating as valedictorian of his class in 1927 at age 15.

Unable to afford college tuition, Bert Combs worked at a local drug store and did small jobs for various residents of his community.

The coal company job did not materialize, but Bert Combs was able to afford three semesters at Cumberland by sweeping floors and firing furnaces in campus buildings.

Bert Combs worked for the highway department for three years in order to earn enough money to attend the University of Kentucky College of Law in Lexington.

Bert Combs was admitted to the bar, and returned to Manchester to begin practicing law.

On December 22,1943, Bert Combs enlisted as a private in the US Army for service in World War II.

Bert Combs received his basic training at Fort Knox and participated in the Volunteer Officer Candidate Program, which would have allowed him to attend Officer Candidate School immediately after basic training.

Bert Combs served as chief of the War Crimes Investigating Department under General Douglas MacArthur in the Philippine Islands, conducting tribunals for Japanese war criminals.

Bert Combs served as president of the Junior Bar Association of Kentucky in 1946 and 1947.

Bert Combs began his political career with his election to the office of city attorney in Prestonsburg in 1950.

Bert Combs announced that he would serve only until a new election could be held.

Bert Combs's opponent was Simeon S Willis, a popular former Republican governor who had previously sat on the court.

Bert Combs won the election by a vote of 73,298 to 69,379.

In George Robinson's oral history, Bert Combs attributed his victory to Willis's advanced age and the fact that many of Willis' supporters assumed that their candidate would win and did not vote.

Bert Combs' speech was attacked as dry and uninspiring, partly because he read it verbatim from prepared notes.

Hugh Morris, chief of the Louisville Courier-Journal Frankfort bureau, commented that "Bert Combs opened and closed his campaign on the same night".

Bert Combs accused both administrations of wasteful spending, specifically attacking the construction of the Kentucky Turnpike and Freedom Hall as unnecessary expenditures.

Two weeks before the primary, Combs was endorsed by former Vice-President and native Kentuckian Alben W Barkley, but Combs felt the endorsement came too late to be much help.

Bert Combs returned to Prestonsburg, set up a savings and loan company, and re-established his law practice.

Consequently, Chandler lost credibility and Bert Combs gained a reputation as a courageous, forthright, and honest politician for having acknowledged the state's financial need during the campaign.

Four days after Wyatt's announcement, Bert Combs declared that he would again seek the office, and he was endorsed by Clements a week later.

In January 1959, Clements held an all-night meeting at the Standiford Airport Hotel in Louisville in which he brokered a deal whereby Bert Combs would run for governor and Wyatt for lieutenant governor.

Bert Combs was especially critical of a rumor which held that Chandler had placed a two-percent assessment on state employees' salaries and had stored the funds in a Cuban bank so they could not be traced.

Chandler countered on Waterfield's behalf with charges that Bert Combs was a "Clements parrot".

Bert Combs wanted to address the issue during his four-year term, hence the haste in calling the special legislative session.

Bert Combs signed the measure, and the question of a constitutional revision was put on the ballot in November 1960, when Kentucky voters defeated it by a margin of almost 18,000 votes.

Bert Combs had asked for the larger tax in order to fund his other priorities.

Bert Combs held large public relations events for each tax-funded project that was completed, declaring in dedication speeches that the sales tax had made the project possible.

Bert Combs had seen a similar clock in Edinburgh, Scotland, and believed it would be a colorful addition to the capitol grounds.

Bert Combs created a merit system for state government workers, ensuring that officials could not be hired or fired for political reasons.

Bert Combs demanded that state employees stick strictly to the rules governing their offices.

In one instance, Bert Combs ordered a state audit of Carter County school superintendent Heman McGuire, who was known to use his office for political gain.

In 1961, a group of citizens from Newport asked Bert Combs for help in cracking down on crime in their city.

Bert Combs formed the state's first Human Rights Commission and ordered the desegregation of all public accommodations in Kentucky.

In 1961, Bert Combs was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from the University of Kentucky, and on February 17,1962, he received an award from Keep America Beautiful for his work on cleaning up Kentucky's highways, including securing passage of a bill requiring that auto junkyards near major roadways be screened from view by fences.

Bert Combs was a charter member and chairman of the Eastern Kentucky Historical Society and a trustee at Campbellsville College.

The Republican rise, coupled with Democratic factionalism, prompted many prominent state Democrats to approach Bert Combs about seeking another term as governor.

Bert Combs wavered on whether to seek the Democratic nomination until October 1966, when he publicly declared his support for Henry Ward.

Bert Combs expressed frustration that the cases that came before the court were frequently appealed to the Supreme Court, which often gave little weight to the opinions rendered by the Court of Appeals.

Catholics were upset that Bert Combs had married his second wife, Helen Clark Rechtin, just forty-three days after his divorce from Mabel Hall was finalized on July 18,1969.

Bert Combs moved to Louisville, becoming the partner of John Tarrant in Tarrant, Combs and Bullitt, and then in Wyatt, Tarrant and Combs, with Wilson Wyatt.

Bert Combs continued to represent large coal companies, drawing the ire of local environmentalist and author Harry M Caudill, who asserted that Combs claimed to represent the powerless while actually representing the powerful.

Bert Combs was active in the formation of the Rural Housing and Development Corporation and served on the Council on Higher Education.

Bert Combs served on President Jimmy Carter's General Advisory Committee on Arms Control and Disarmament.

On October 3,1984, leaders of the Council for Better Education asked Bert Combs to represent them in a legal challenge to Kentucky's school financing system, which it claimed unfairly discriminated against poorer school systems in the state.

Bert Combs felt the lawsuit would be difficult to win and could cause retaliation against his other clients by state government officials.

Bert Combs needed this lawsuit "about like a hog needs a side saddle", he would later claim; nevertheless, he agreed to take the case if the council could convince thirty to forty percent of the state's school boards to join it.

Bert Combs first attempted to gain legislative concessions that might preclude the need for a lawsuit.

The defense argued that the Council lacked standing to bring the suit; Bert Combs rebutted this argument and cited statistics that ranked Kentucky as the most illiterate state in the nation to show how inequitable financing had adversely affected the state's students.

Bert Combs was reported missing hours later, and the following day, he was found dead of hypothermia just downstream from his car in the Red River near Rosslyn, in Powell County.

Bert Combs was buried in the Beech Creek Cemetery in Manchester.

The Bert Combs Building at Morehead State University in Morehead, Kentucky, has been named in his honor.