Quick Facts
Biography
Richard Lowell Roudebush (January 18, 1918 – January 28, 1995) was a U.S. Representative from Indiana.
Born on a farm in Hamilton County, near Noblesville, Indiana, Roudebush attended Hamilton County schools. He graduated from Butler University, Indianapolis, in 1941. He served in the United States Army from November 18, 1941, to August 12, 1944, as a demolition specialist for the Ordnance Department in Middle Eastern, North African, and Italian campaigns. He was a farmer and a partner in a livestock commission company. He served as National Commander of the Veterans of Foreign Wars in 1957-1958, and as chairman of the Indiana Veterans Commission from 1954 to 1960.
Roudebush was elected as a Republican to the Eighty-seventh and to the four succeeding Congresses (January 3, 1961 – January 3, 1971). He was not a candidate in 1970 for reelection, but was an unsuccessful candidate for election to the United States Senate against incumbent Democrat Vance Hartke in the closest Senate election in Indiana history. He later served as the Administrator of Veterans Affairs, Veterans Administration from 1974 to 1977.
He died on January 28, 1995. The Richard L. Roudebush V.A. Medical Center, a part of the Indiana University Medical Center, Indianapolis, was named in his honor.