William H. Rehnquist

William H. Rehnquist (1924–2005) was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and served in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II. He earned his BA and MA in political science from Stanford University and a second MA from Harvard. He graduated first in his class at Stanford Law School in 1952. In 1969 Rehnquist became assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Council. He was confirmed by the Senate as an associate justice of the Supreme Court in December 1971, and took his place on the bench in January 1972. He became the sixteenth Chief Justice of the Supreme Court in 1986.