Obituaries : R. McClory; Backed Nixon’s Impeachment

Robert McClory, one of seven Republican congressmen on the House Judiciary Committee to vote for the “abuse of power” article of impeachment against President Richard M. Nixon, died after falling unconscious in church, District of Columbia police said Monday.

Police spokesman Quintin Peterson said McClory, 80, passed out Sunday morning at the Third Church of Christ Scientist. He was taken by ambulance to George Washington University Hospital where he was pronounced dead of apparent cardiac arrest.

Second-in-Charge

McClory, whose Illinois district included Chicago’s north and northwest suburbs, was the second-ranking Republican on the House Judiciary Committee during Nixon’s impeachment hearings.

On July 29, 1974, McClory formed part of a 28-10 committee vote to impeach Nixon for misusing his powers of office. McClory had shifted to an affirmative vote on Article 2 of the impeachment process after opposing Article 1, which dealt with the Watergate cover-up. The committee vote on Article 2 dashed any hope Nixon had that he might beat the impeachment issue on the House floor and led to his subsequent resignation.

Eighteen months later it was learned that McClory and other Judiciary Committee leaders, including Chairman Peter W. Rodino Jr. (D-N.J.), told Nixon that they would oppose continuation of the impeachment process if he resigned.

McClory angrily retired from Congress in 1982 to avoid running against another Republican, Rep. John Porter. His announcement came after redrawing of congressional districts required by the 1980 census.

McClory, who was first elected to the House in 1962, abandoned his congressional career and a chance to become chairman of the House Judiciary Committee because of what he called “a blatantly political decision” by a Chicago federal court. The court upheld a redistricting plan that cost the state two congressional seats and threw several GOP congressmen into competing races. He since had been working for a Washington law firm.

McClory was first elected to public office in 1950--to the Illinois House where he served until 1953. He sat in the Illinois Senate from 1953 until he went to Congress.