Elliot Ross Buckley

Elliot Ross Buckley (June 18, 1921 - June 30, 1992) was a New York City-born attorney and Republican official. A cousin of author William F. Buckley, Jr., Buckley served as an attorney in the Criminal Division of the United States Department of Justice from 1969-1982. He then became general counsel, member, and chairman (1982-1989) of the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission on appointment from U.S. President Ronald Reagan.

Buckley grew up in Tampico, Mexico. He attended Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire. He graduated in 1943 from the University of Texas at Austin and the Tulane University Law School in New Orleans in 1949. His education was interrupted by service in the United States Army from 1942-1946. He received the Bronze Star for his participation in the Pacific campaign of World War II.

After his graduation from law school, Buckley joined the legal staff of Gulf Oil Corporation (1956-1959) and settled in New Orleans. He was in private practice from 1959-1964.

In 1960, Buckley was the GOP nominee for the Second Congressional District against the incumbent Democrat Hale Boggs. Boggs easily prevailed, 81,034 (78 percent) to Buckley's 22,818 (22 percent). In the same election, John F. Kennedy easily defeated Richard M. Nixon in Louisiana. In the neighboring Sixth Congressional District race, the Republican Charles H. Dillemuth, a Baton Rouge businessman, polled only 14 percent of the vote against incumbent Democrat U.S. Representative James H. Morrison of Hammond.

Early in 1962, Buckley ran for mayor of New Orleans but lost as the Republican nominee to Democrat Victor H. Schiro for the right to succeed retiring Mayor deLesseps Story "Chep" Morrison, Sr., a three-time gubernatorial candidate. Buckley's New Orleans mayoral campaign was said to have paralleled and foreshadowed his cousin's 1965 bid as the Conservative Party nominee against John V. Lindsay in New York City.

From 1964-1969, Buckley was assistant principal and teacher for the Sam Barthe School for Boys in New Orleans.

In 1969, Buckley moved to Vienna, Virginia, to work in the Nixon administration Justice Department in Washington. The job lasted well beyond Nixon's tenure — for thirteen years during four presidential administrations. While in the Justice Department, Buckley was president of the Westbriar Civic Association and was elected to the Vienna Town Council in 1976. He served five two-year terms through 1986. His tenure with the Occupational and Safety Commission spanned the last seven years of the Reagan administration.

Buckley retired in 1989 to Las Cruces, New Mexico, with his wife, the former Mary Smallpage.

References

Buckley obituary, Las Cruces Sun-News, July 2, 1992

Election Statistics, U.S. House, 1960, Congressional Quarterly's Guide to U.S. Elections

http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/speeches/1983/ 62883a.htm

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9901E1DA1F38F93AA15756C0A965948260

http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=17562

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