William J. Scherle

William J. Scherle
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Iowa
In office January 3, 1967 – January 3, 1975
Preceded by	John R. Hansen
Succeeded by	Tom Harkin
Constituency	7th district (1967–1973) 5th district (1973–1975)
Member of the Iowa House of Representatives
In office 1960–1966
Personal details
Born	March 14, 1923 Little Falls, New York, U.S.
Died	August 27, 2003(2003-08-27) (aged 80) Council Bluffs, Iowa, U.S.
Political party	Republican

William Joseph Scherle (March 14, 1923 – August 27, 2003) was an American politician who served as a U.S. Representative from Southwestern Iowa from 1967 to 1975. He was a member of the Republican Party.

Born in

Scherle served as chair of the Mills County Republican Central Committee from 1956 to 1964. In 1960 he was elected as a Republican to the Iowa House of Representatives, where he served until 1966.

In 1966, Scherle was elected to represent

After making a very public and national campaign against the National Endowment for the Arts, and in particular its funding of the single-word poem "lighght" by Aram Saroyan, Scherle found himself campaigned against by many of Saroyan's supporters including George Plimpton.^[3]

In 1974, he ran for re-election but was defeated by Tom Harkin.^[1] After losing his re-election bid, Scherle served as Deputy Administrator for the United States Department of Agriculture from 1975 to 1977.^[1] He later served as president of a consulting firm in Washington, D.C. from 1977 to 1987.

Scherle died in Council Bluffs, Iowa, from prostate cancer^[1] and was interred in Arlington National Cemetery.^[4]

• List of members of the House Un-American Activities Committee

• United States Congress. "William J. Scherle (id: S000121)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.

 This article incorporates public domain material from the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress