Thomas B. Curtis

Mr. Curtis was the first chairman of the Federal Election Commission. A Missouri native, he served in the U.S. House from 1951-69, before unsuccessfully running for the Senate against Democrat Thomas F. Eagleton in 1968 and 1974. A former vice president and general counsel for the Encyclopedia Brittanica, Mr. Curtis chaired the Federal Rent Advisory Board ( 1971-73), the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (1972-73) and the Twentieth Century Fund's Task Force on Financing Congressional Campaigns ( 1970). He was graduated from Dartmouth College in 1932 and received his law degree from Washington University in St. Louis in 1935. He was originally appointed for six years.