Congressman during Nixon era
John F. Seiberling, 89, a former U.S. congressman from Ohio who served on the committee that led impeachment hearings against President Nixon, died Saturday of respiratory failure at his home near Akron, Ohio, according to his wife, Betty.
A native of Akron, Seiberling graduated from Harvard and served in the Army in Europe during World War II. His mother, Henrietta Seiberling, played a pivotal role in the founding of Alcoholics Anonymous by arranging a meeting of the organization’s founders, Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith.
His opposition to the Vietnam War led Seiberling, a Democrat who had been a corporate attorney for Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., to run for Congress against Republican Rep. William Ayres.
While in Congress, Seiberling led a House subcommittee on public lands and national parks that preserved 129 million acres, including areas in Alaska and the area in northeastern Ohio that eventually became Cuyahoga Valley National Park.
After retiring from Congress in 1987, Seiberling taught at the University of Akron School of Law and directed the university’s Center for Peace Studies.
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