Rawghlie C. Stanford
(1937-1939)
"Rawghilie C. Stanford narrowly missed being an Arizona native. He was born August 2, 1879, at Buffalo Gap, Texas, and brought by his parents to Phoenix as a child. He grew up on his father's farm near Phoenix, attended Phoenix schools, and was a student at Tempe Normal School for a year. As a boy he learned the cowboy's skills, and became a bronc rider of note in Arizona rodeos. He earned his first money by buying Indian ponies for $2 and selling for as much as $30.
Stanford enlisted in the Army near the end of the Spanish-American War and spent 18 months in the Philippines, attaining the rank of sergeant before being discharged in 1901. Then he began preparation for the law, a career which brought him to the governorship and later to the Arizona Supreme Court bench. After studying law in Phoenix and Bisbee, he passed the Arizona Bar examination and began his practice in Tombstone. Stanford moved to Phoenix after two years in Tombstone, and in 1915 he was elected Superior Court judge in Maricopa County, serving for a time as the only judge in the county system. His most celebrated case was that of the election dispute between Gov. Hunt and Thomas E. Campbell in 1916-1917. Stanford ruled in favor of Campbell, but the Arizona Supreme Court gave the election to Hunt.
After practicing law in Phoenix for another 12 years, Stanford was urged to seek the governorship on the Democratic ticket. A tall, genial man of quiet dignity, he impressed the voters and was elected in November, 1936. He turned his attention to the restoration of Arizona's economy in the latter years of the Depression. He soon found that he preferred the life of the judge and lawyer to that of the politician, and announce that he would not seek re-election as governor after his single term. In 1943 he was named to the Arizona Supreme Court, and it was on the state's highest tribunal that the earned his most lasting fame. He retired from the Court in 1955 and died December 15, 1963."
Goff, John F. Arizona
Biographical Dictionary. Black Mountain Press. Cave Creek,
Arizona 1983.
p. 265
Rawghlie Clement Stanford collection, 1882-1978
[manuscript]
MS
FM MSS 101
Statement of Governor R.C. Stanford of Arizona
to Boulder Dam Power Conference : called by Hon. Harold L. Ickes, Secretary
of Interior at Washington, D.C., April 16, 1937.
GV
1.2:S 71 B 58
Information about Arizona / submitted by it's
governor Rawghlie C. Stanford.
GV
1.4:I 53
Biography of Rawghlie C. Stanford, 1879 - 1963
CB BIO STA,RAW
FB BIO STA,RAW
