17 Facts About Merwin Coad

Doyle Merwin Coad was born on September 28,1924 and is an American retired minister and politician from Iowa who served as a member of the United States House of Representatives for three terms from 1957 to 1963.

Merwin Coad's election snapped the Republican Party's fourteen-year hold on every US House seat from Iowa.

Since the death of John Dingell in February 2019, Coad is the earliest-serving living former member of the House, and is the last living former US representative who assumed office in the 1950s.

Doyle Merwin Coad was born on a farm in Mitchell County, Kansas near Cawker City, Kansas.

Merwin Coad moved with his parents to a farm in Nemaha County, Nebraska, near Auburn, Nebraska.

Merwin Coad graduated from high school in Auburn in 1941.

Merwin Coad attended Peru State Teachers College in Peru, Nebraska in 1941 and 1942, and Phillips University in Enid, Oklahoma from 1942 to 1944, and then graduated from Texas Christian University at Fort Worth, Texas in 1945.

Merwin Coad studied at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa.

Merwin Coad was ordained to the ministry of Disciples of Christ Church, in Boone, Iowa, in 1945.

Merwin Coad served as associate minister in St Joseph, Missouri, in 1948 and 1949, as a Minister at Lenox, Iowa from 1949 to 1951, and as a Minister in Boone, from 1951 to 1956.

In 1956, Coad ran as a Democrat against six-term incumbent Republican Congressman James I Dolliver.

However, it was front-page news that the former minister had obtained an Alabama divorce from his Iowa wife in March 1961, allegedly without first notifying her, and that in May 1961, Merwin Coad had married Carol Peters, a member of his staff who had just obtained a Nevada divorce from Merwin Coad's executive assistant.

Merwin Coad then received a raise, making her his highest-paid staffer.

In July 1963 Merwin Coad began working in the Kennedy Administration as a $75-per-day consultant for the Agency for International Development's office of material resources.

Merwin Coad then became involved in real estate lending in the Washington DC area, but by the late 1960s he faced at least one civil suit, and later a grand jury investigation.

Merwin Coad married Georgette Hill of Teterboro, New Jersey on September 19,1991.

Merwin Coad turned 100 on September 28,2024, becoming one of the small handful of former US Representatives to have done so.