Richard Ely Bird

Republican Representative of Kansas's 8th district

  • Representative

    Kansas, district 8

    April 11, 1921 - March 3, 1923

1

Congresses Served

1

House Terms

November 4, 1878 (76 years old)

Birthday

January 10, 1955

Death

  • Served as a Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives for one term.
  • Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, and moved to Wichita, Kansas, in 1887.
  • Graduated from Wichita High School in 1898 and later studied law, being admitted to the Kansas bar in 1901.
  • Became a judge of the district court of the 18th Judicial District of Kansas in 1916.
  • Elected to Congress during the Warren G. Harding presidential landslide of 1920.
  • Unseated incumbent Democratic Congressman William Ayres by a narrow margin in the 1920 election.
  • Lost reelection in 1922 to former Congressman Ayres and resumed practicing law.
  • Ran unsuccessfully for Congress again in 1928 against Ayres.
  • Retired from public life in 1937 and moved to Long Beach, California, where he died in 1955.
  • Buried in Maplegrove Cemetery in Wichita, Kansas.