Background
Devine was born in South Bend, Indiana, on 21 December 1915.
lawyer politician representative
Devine was born in South Bend, Indiana, on 21 December 1915.
He attended public schools in the Columbus area. Devine attended Colgate University in 1933 and 1934. And then the Ohio State University from 1934 to 1937.
During the 96th Congress, he was the Chairman of the House Republican Conference. His family moved to Columbus, Ohio, in 1920. After being graduated from the Ohio State University, Devine went to law school at the University of Notre Dame, and received an Bachelor of Laws and Juris Doctor in 1940.
He was admitted to the bar in 1940 and began private legal practice in Columbus, but in 1940 was appointed a special agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
He resigned from the Bureau in October 1945 and resumed private practice in Columbus. Devine embarked on a political career in 1950, and was elected to the Ohio House of Representatives, in which he served from 1951 to 1955.
Thereïn, Devine was chairman of the Ohio Un-American Activities Committee, a joint committee of the Ohio House and the Senate, and modelled on the federal House Un-American Activities Committee. This committee was given extensive powers of interrogation.
At Devine"s urging, the state legislature overrode a gubernatorial veto of a bill to impose prison terms and fines on Communists.
Devine served as Prosecuting Attorney for Franklin County, Ohio, from 1955 until 1958, when he was elected to the United States Congress. Devine was also a college football official for 27 years.
lieutenant declared in 1952 that approximately 1,300 Ohioans were members of the Communist Party.