William Howard Taft / Robert Alphonso Taft

Side A: Born here on September 15, 1857, William Howard Taft is the only American to have served as President and Chief Justice of the United States. His unique career of public service began after he graduated from Yale University and Cincinnati Law School. He became an Ohio Superior Court Judge at age 29. In 1892, he was appointed a judge of the United States Circuit Court of Appeals. In 1900, President William McKinley sent him to the Philippines as chief civil administrator. President Theodore Roosevelt named him Secretary of War in 1904, and he was elected president of the United States four years later. In 1921, President Harding named Taft Chief Justice, a position that he relished, serving until just before his death in 1930. Side B: Robert A. Taft, son of William Howard Taft, was born in Cincinnati on September 8, 1889, and graduated from Yale University and Harvard Law School. After serving in a number of administrative posts, he served in the Ohio Legislature from 1921-1932. Elected as a United States Senator in 1938, he served until shortly before his death in 1953. He rose to the rank of Senate Majority Leader and, in three separate presidential election cycles in 1940, 1948, and 1952, was a chief competitor for the Republican Party nomination. Taft emerged as a leading figure in the party’s conservative wing. He was the co-sponsor of the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947, which sought equity between labor and business in collective bargaining. For his leadership, Senator Taft was given an honorary title of “Mr. Republican.”