Arthur Vivian Watkins
| Arthur Vivian Watkins | |
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United States Senator from Utah |
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In office January 3, 1947 – January 3, 1959 |
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| Preceded by | Abe Murdock |
| Succeeded by | Frank E. Moss |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
December 18, 1886 Midway, Utah Territory |
| Died | September 1, 1973 (aged 86) Orem, Utah |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse(s) | Andrea Rich Dorothy Eva Watkins |
| Children | 7 |
| Alma mater |
Brigham Young University New York University Columbia University Law School |
| Religion | The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon) |
Arthur Vivian Watkins (December 18, 1886 – September 1, 1973) was a Republican U.S. Senator from Utah between 1947 and 1959. He was influential as a proponent of terminating federal recognition of American Indian tribes. He also chaired the Watkins Committee in 1954, which led to the censure of Joseph McCarthy.
Watkins was born in Midway, Wasatch County, Utah to Arthur Watkins (1864-1959) and Emily Adelia Gerber (1864-1947). He was the eldest of 6 siblings. He attended Brigham Young University (BYU) from 1903 to 1906, and New York University (NYU) from 1909 to 1910. He graduated from Columbia University Law School in 1912, and returned to Utah. There he was admitted to the bar the same year and commenced practice in Vernal, Utah.
He founded and edited a weekly newspaper in Utah County in 1914 called The Voice of Sharon, which eventually became the Orem-Geneva Times. In the same year, Watkins was appointed assistant county attorney of Salt Lake County. From 1919 to 1925, he ran a 600 acre (2.4 km²) ranch near Lehi.
Watkins served as district judge of the Fourth Judicial District of Utah 1928-1933, losing his position in the Roosevelt Democratic landslide in 1932. In the early 1930s, he served as the director of the Provo River Water Users Association and director of the Orem Chamber of Commerce. An unsuccessful candidate for the Republican nomination to the Seventy-fifth Congress in 1936, Watkins was elected as a Republican to the United States Senate in 1946, and reelected in 1952. He served from January 3, 1947, to January 3, 1959.
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