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Robert Lee Fulton "Bob" Sikes (June 3, 1906 – September 28, 1994) represented the Florida Panhandle in the United States House of Representatives from 1941 to 1979, with a brief break in 1944 and 1945. Born in Isabella, near Sylvester, Georgia, Sikes attended the public schools there and obtained his Bachelor of Science in 1927 from the University of Georgia at Athens, where he we was a member of Alpha Gamma Rho Fraternity. He received a Master of Science in 1929 from the University of Florida at Gainesville. From 1933 to 1946, he engaged in the publishing business in Crestview in the Florida Panhandle. From 1936 to 1940, he served in the Florida House of Representatives. Sikes was elected to the Seventy-seventh and Seventy-eighth Congresses in a bitter Democratic primary campaign--in those days, the real contest in Florida--in the spring of 1940,〔Crestview, Florida, "Monticello Mudslinger Shows Desperation In Losing Campaign", ''Okaloosa News-Journal'', Friday 17 May 1940, Volume 26, Number 20, page 1.〕〔Crestview, Florida, "The Public Wants To Know Where Mr. Mays Stands", ''Okaloosa News-Journal'', Friday 17 May 1940, Volume 26, Number 20, page 1.〕〔Crestview, Florida, "Monticello Mudslinger Smears Countryside Desperat () Propaganda", ''Okaloosa News-Journal'', Friday 24 May 1940, Volume 26, Number 21, page 1.〕〔Crestview, Florida, "Mays Loses Temper And Tries To Stop Bob Sikes' Speech", ''Okaloosa News-Journal'', Friday 24 May 1940, Volume 26, Number 21, page 1.〕 and served from January 3, 1941, until his resignation on October 19, 1944, to become a major in the United States Army during World War II.〔(Florida prosperous in war year )〕 His local representation was crucial to the development of Eglin Field as a test facility of the United States Army Air Forces, and later, the U.S. Air Force. He served as delegate, Interparliamentary Conference in Warsaw, Poland, in 1959. When President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered all legislators on active duty to return to Washington, Sikes ran for his old seat in 1944 and won, serving in the 79th and 16 succeeding Congreses. Sikes was a colleague of Representatives Courtney W. Campbell, a fellow Democrat, and Campbell's victorious opponent, William C. Cramer of St. Petersburg, the first Florida Republican in the House delegation from Florida in decades. Sikes in his memoirs describes the Campbell-Cramer campaign of 1954:
He was one of three co-hosts, along with Jack Edwards of Alabama and Trent Lott of Mississippi, of the ''Gulf Coast Congressional Report'' on WKRG-TV in Mobile, Alabama. Sikes did not seek reelection in 1978 to the Ninety-sixth Congress. In 1975, Common Cause, a public-affairs lobbying group, accused Sikes of using his office for personal gain. He owned stock in a Pensacola Naval Air Station bank that had been established by government officials at his urging, as well as military contractor Fairchild Industries, which benefited from government contracts awarded by Sikes. He failed to disclose his interest in both these companies in the requisite financial reports. Sikes was reprimanded by a 381-3 vote of the House of Representatives for the financial misconduct on July 26, 1976. Sikes, a strong conservative, believed that "flaming liberals" had conspired against him.〔(Bob Sikes, 'He-coon' of politics, dead at 88 )〕 Upon retirement from Congress, Sikes retired to Crestview, where he lived until his death on September 28, 1994. The Bob Sikes Bridge, which connects Gulf Breeze to Santa Rosa Island, is named after him, as well as the Bob Sikes Airport near Crestview/Okaloosa. ==References== 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Robert L. F. Sikes」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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