Ira E. Robinson
{{Short description|American judge and politician}}
{{Infobox officeholder
|name=Ira E. Robinson
|image=ROBINSON, IRA E. HONORABLE LCCN2016862577.jpg
|caption=Portrait by Harris & Ewing, {{circa|1928}}
|office=Member of the Federal Radio Commission
|president={{ubl|Calvin Coolidge|Herbert Hoover}}
|term_start=March 1928
|term_end=January 15, 1932
|predecessor=William H. G. Bullard
|successor=Thad H. Brown
|office2=Justice of the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia
|term_start2=October 15, 1907
|term_end2=October 26, 1915
|predecessor2=Joseph M. Sanders
|successor2=John W. Mason
|state_senate3=West Virginia
|district3=11th
|alongside3=Charles W. Swisher
|term_start3=December 1, 1902
|term_end3=December 1, 1904
|predecessor3=
|successor3=Joseph H. McDermott
|birth_name=Ira Ellsworth Robinson
|birth_date={{birth date|1869|09|16}}
|birth_place=Taylor County, West Virginia
|death_date={{death date and age|1951|10|28|1869|09|16}}
|death_place=Philippi, West Virginia
|party=Republican
}}
Ira Ellsworth Robinson (September 16, 1869 – October 28, 1951) was an American politician, judge, and the second chairman of the Federal Radio Commission (1928–32).
Biography
Robinson was born in Taylor County, West Virginia, near Grafton. He graduated from the Fairmont State Normal School in 1889 and then studied law, being admitted to the bar in 1891. From 1896 to 1900, he was the Taylor County prosecuting attorney. He was a member of the Board of Regents of the State Normal School system from 1901 to 1907. Robinson was elected to the West Virginia Senate for the 1903-04 session and was then appointed to the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia in 1907, being elected in 1908 to the remainder of the unexpired term (through 1915).The Lawyer & Banker and Southern Bench & Bar Review, Volume 8 (1915), p. 301
In 1916, Robinson was the Republican nominee for governor of West Virginia, losing by a narrow margin to Democrat John J. Cornwell. In 1917-18, he served as the chairman of the draft board for northern West Virginia. In 1921, he was put in charge of the administration of the federal War Minerals Relief Act.The Mining Congress Journal, July, 1921, p. 273
In 1920, Robinson purchased an 1870 mansion in Barbour County which he renamed Adaland Mansion after his wife; it is now a museum.[http://www.wonderfulwv.com/archives/sub.cfm?month=dec08&fea=2 Wonderful West Virginia article on Adaland Mansion] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110718081831/http://www.wonderfulwv.com/archives/sub.cfm?month=dec08&fea=2 |date=2011-07-18 }} It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1995.{{NRISref|version=2009a}}
In March 1928, Robinson was appointed to the Federal Radio Commission after the death of its first chairman William H. G. Bullard on November 24, 1927 and became its second chairman; Robinson served until his resignation in January 1932. He presided over the 1928 reallocation known as General Order 40, although he opposed it as too favorable to network radio stations.Telecommunications, Mass Media, and Democracy: The Battle for the Control of U.S. Broadcasting, 1928-1935, Robert W. McChesney, Oxford University Press, 1995, p. 35 He helped mold much of the early regulation of radio in the US.Broadcasting Telecasting, November 5, 1951, Robinson obituary, p. 60
Robinson was forced to sell Adaland later in life and died in considerable financial difficulties.{{citation needed|date=August 2016}} He is buried in Bluemont Cemetery in his birthplace of Grafton, West Virginia.
References
{{reflist|30em}}
External links
- The West Virginia & Regional History Center at West Virginia University houses the papers of Ira E. Robinson in three collections, [https://archives.lib.wvu.edu/repositories/2/resources/2474 A&M 155], [https://archives.lib.wvu.edu/repositories/2/resources/2687 A&M 294], and [https://archives.lib.wvu.edu/repositories/2/resources/4014 A&M 965]
{{s-start}}
{{s-ppo}}
{{s-bef|before=Henry D. Hatfield}}
{{s-ttl|title=Republican nominee for Governor of West Virginia|years=1916}}
{{s-aft|after=Ephraim F. Morgan}}
{{s-end}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Robinson, Ira E.}}
Category:19th-century American lawyers
Category:20th-century American lawyers
Category:20th-century American judges
Category:County prosecuting attorneys in West Virginia
Category:Fairmont State University alumni
Category:Justices of the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia
Category:Members of the Federal Radio Commission
Category:People from Barbour County, West Virginia
Category:Politicians from Grafton, West Virginia
Category:West Virginia lawyers
Category:West Virginia state senators
Category:20th-century members of the West Virginia Legislature