Robert B. Howell

Robert Beecher Howell ( born January 21, 1864 in Adrian, Lenawee County, Michigan, † March 11, 1933 in Washington DC ) was an American politician and 1922-1933 U.S. Senator for the State of Nebraska.

Early years

Robert Beecher Howell was born in Michigan, where he first attended the public schools. Then he attended until 1885, the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. After graduating, he attended the Detroit Law School in 1888 and moved to Omaha.

Political rise

In the Spanish-American War Howell served in the U.S. Navy as a lieutenant. Between 1902 and 1904 he was a deputy in the Nebraska Legislature and a member of the Omaha Water Board, which in 1921 finally replaced in 1913 by the Metropolitan Water District and the Omaha Metropolitan Utilities District. Howell was its Chairman since 1913 and delegated the stores that were related to the construction and expansion of water and from 1921 also of gas equipment.

1912, 1916 and 1920, he was elected to the Republican National Committee. After an unsuccessful attempt in 1914 to become governor of Nebraska, he served 1917-1923 in the Navy Reserve. In 1921 he was chairman of the Radio Commission of the United States Post Office Department. A year later, on March 4, 1922, he began his first term as a U.S. Senator for the State of Nebraska. From 1927, he held the post of Chairman of the United States Senate Committee on Claims. In 1928 he was re-elected for a further term of office. He died while in office on March 11, 1933 in Washington. His body was transferred to Nebraska and was buried in Omaha.