Andrew Frank Schoeppel was an American lawyer and politician. He served as Governor of Kansas from 1943 to 1947.
Background
Andrew Frank was born on November 23, 1894 near Claflin, Barton County, Kansas, United States, the son of George J. Schoeppel, a grain elevator owner, and of Anna Filip, a seamstress. When he was five, the family moved to a farm in northern Ness County.
Education
Andrew attended country schools, graduating from Ransom high school in 1915. He enrolled as a premedical student at the University of Kansas (1916 - 1918). In 1922 he received the Bachelor of laws from the University of Nebraska and "honorable mention" on Walter Camp's first All-American football team.
Career
After studies Schoeppel served in the naval aviation corps. Admitted to the Kansas bar in 1923, Schoeppel began to practice law in Ness City.
Schoeppel became a partner in the law firm of Peters and Schoeppel, which in 1936 became Schoeppel and Smyth. He was well known as a sports official in western Kansas and coached the football team at Fort Hays State College in 1929. He held the offices of city attorney, county attorney, member of the school board and city council, and mayor.
In 1939 Schoeppel was appointed chairman of the Kansas Corporation Commission by Governor Payne Ratner. In this key position, with responsibility for setting rates for public utilities, Schoeppel gained statewide political exposure.
He resigned in April 1942 to campaign for the Republican nomination for governor against three better-known Republicans, and won nomination by a margin of 7, 000 votes. In the 1942 election he defeated the Democratic candidate by 75, 824 votes, carrying 103 of the state's 105 counties. Reelected two years later, he captured a majority in all the counties. His margin of victory was 231, 700 votes, the largest of any governor of Kansas to that time.
During his first term Schoeppel stressed economy and "cooperation" between the executive and legislative departments. He offered no legislative program, and the heavily Republican legislature broke into warring factions dominated by local interests.
During his second term more of Schoeppel's legislative proposals were implemented. Modernization of school systems and highway building plans were his primary developments. A fair standards labor act, considered punitive by labor unions, was also passed.
Schoeppel was engaged in public controversy at least three times during his terms as governor. Although a state law of 1935 had reimposed capital punishment, no execution had taken place in Kansas since 1870. Schoeppel permitted the first executions. A second issue was his granting clemency to Ronald Finney, convicted in 1933 for embezzling, by bond forgery, almost one-half million dollars from the state. The third controversy involved state prohibition: Kansas had been dry since 1880. When federal agents, late in 1945, seized a large quantity of unlicensed liquor, Schoeppel questioned their good faith because they had not cooperated with Kansas authorities. He launched an investigation and asked the legislative council to assemble information which led to the repeal of prohibition in Kansas in 1949.
Schoeppel left the governorship in 1947 and joined the Wichita law firm of Foulston, Siefkin, Schoeppel, Bartlett and Powers. In 1948 he gained the Republican nomination for U. S. senator. He was elected and reelected in 1954 and 1960, each time by a substantial margin. Schoeppel served on the Interstate and Foreign Commerce Committee and at various times on the Appropriations Committee and the Agricultural and Forestry Committee. He was chairman of a surface-transportation subcommittee and he served on a special committee on small business. He was also a member of the Republican Senate Policy Committee.
Schoeppel hold outspokenly conservative views, Schoeppel supported Senator Joseph R. McCarthy for a time and backed Senator Robert A. Taft for the Republican presidential nomination.
Personality
Schoeppel was a personable six-foot, two-inch man. He spoke in the Senate only rarely; his influence was used in committees and the cloakroom.
Connections
On June 2, 1924, Schoeppel married Marie Thomsen; they had no children.