E. Ross Adair

Edwin Ross Adair was an American lawyer and World War II veteran who served 10 terms as a U.S. Representative from Indiana from 1951 to 1971. He also served as the United States Ambassador to Ethiopia from 1971 to 1974.

Early life

Born in Albion, Indiana, Adair attended grade and high schools in that city. He graduated from Hillsdale College in Michigan, A.B., 1928, and from George Washington University Law School, Washington, D.C., LL.B., 1933.
Adair was admitted to the Indiana bar in 1933 and commenced the practice of law in Fort Wayne, Indiana. He served as probate commissioner of Allen County, Indiana from 1940 to 1950. During World War II, he was called to active duty as a second lieutenant in the Quartermaster Corps Reserve in September 1941 and served until October 1945. He received battle stars for the Normandy, Northern France, Ardennes, Rhine and Central European campaigns.

Adair was elected as a Republican from Indiana's 4th congressional district to the Eighty-second and to the nine succeeding Congresses. Adair voted in favor of the Civil Rights Acts of 1957, 1960, 1964, and 1968, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, but voted present on the 24th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1970 to the Ninety-second Congress.

Adair served as the United States Ambassador to Ethiopia from 1971 to 1974 as an appointee of President Richard Nixon.

Adair resumed the practice of law in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where he resided until his death there, May 5, 1983. He was interred at Greenlawn Memorial Park and Mausoleum in Fort Wayne.