Background
Donald Claude Dobbins was born on March 20, 1878 in Dewey, Illinois, United States.
Donald Claude Dobbins was born on March 20, 1878 in Dewey, Illinois, United States.
Dobbins attended public school, the University of Illinois at Urbana, Dixon Business College, and George Washington University.
He then worked as a stenographer from 1900–1906, later working as a post office inspector from 1906–1909. He studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1909, commencing practice in Champaign, Illinois. He served as delegate to the Democratic National Convention at Philadelphia in 1936. Dobbins was elected as a Democrat to the Seventy-third and Seventy-fourth Congresses (March 4, 1933 – January 3, 1937). He was not a candidate for renomination in 1936, so he resumed his practice of law.