Richard Merrill Atkinson

Richard Merrill Atkinson ( born February 6, 1894 in Nashville, Tennessee, † April 29, 1947 ) was an American politician. Between 1937 and 1939 he represented the state of Tennessee in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Career

Richard Atkinson attended the common schools and the Wallace University School in Nashville, where he graduated in 1912. This was followed up in 1916 to study at Vanderbilt University. After studying law at Cumberland University in Lebanon and its made ​​in 1917 admitted to the bar he began to work in his new career in 1920 in Nashville. In between, he served 1917-1919 during the First World War in the United States Marine Corps in France. Between 1926 and 1934, Atkinson was a prosecutor in the Tenth Judicial District of Tennessee. From 1931 to 1933 he also served as State Representative for the management of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Politically Atkinson was a member of the Democratic Party. In the congressional elections of 1936 he was in the fifth electoral district of Tennessee in the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington DC chosen, where he became the successor of Joseph Byrns on January 3, 1937. Since he was not nominated by his party for re-election in 1938, he was able to complete only one term in Congress until January 3, 1939. At this time there more New Deal legislation of the Federal Government were adopted.

After his retirement from the U.S. House of Representatives Richard Atkinson once again worked as a lawyer in Nashville, where he died on 29 April 1947.