Representative Roy Orchard Woodruff

Roy Orchard Woodruff served as a Representative from Michigan in the United States Congress from 1913 to 1953. A member of the Republican Party, Roy Orchard Woodruff contributed to the legislative process during 17 terms in office.

Roy Orchard Woodruff’s service in Congress occurred during a significant period in American history. As a member of the House of Representatives, Roy Orchard Woodruff participated in the democratic process and represented the interests of constituents.

Roy Orchard Woodruff (March 14, 1876 – February 12, 1953) was a politician and soldier from the U.S. state of Michigan. Woodruff was born of English and Scottish ancestry to Charles Woodruff and Electa A. (Wallace) Woodruff in Eaton Rapids, Michigan. He attended the common schools and the high school of Eaton Rapids, and apprenticed to the printing business from 1891 to 1899. He enlisted as a corporal in Company G, Thirty-third Regiment, Michigan Volunteer Infantry, during the Spanish–American War. He saw active service and was mustered out. Woodruff graduated from the dental department of the Detroit College of Medicine in 1902 and practiced dentistry in Bay City from 1902 to 1911. On 26 April 1905 he married Vera May Hall, the daughter of Michigan Republican State Central Committee member De Vere Hall. He was mayor of Bay City from 1911 to 1913. In 1912, Woodruff defeated incumbent Republican U.S. Representative George A. Loud to be elected as the candidate of the Progressive Party from Michigan’s 10th congressional district to the 63rd Congress, serving from March 4, 1913, to March 3, 1915. Woodruff and William J. MacDonald (12th district) were the only two Michiganders elected to the U.S. House from the Progressive Party. He was not a candidate for re-nomination in 1914 and served for two years in the First World War as an Infantry officer, acquiring the rank of major during his service in France. In 1920, Woodruff returned to Congress, elected as a Republican from the same district to the 67th Congress. He was subsequently re-elected to the fifteen succeeding Congresses, serving from March 4, 1921, to January 3, 1953. On June 11, 1921, just three months after returning to office, he married his second wife Daisy E. Fish. He was re-elected unopposed in 1922 and 1926 and was alternate delegate to Republican National Convention from Michigan in 1940. He was not a candidate for re-nomination in 1952 to the 83rd Congress. Roy O. Woodruff was a Baptist, later Presbyterian and a member of the American Dental Association, American Legion, United Spanish War Veterans, Freemasons, Elks, and Odd Fellows. He died in Washington, D.C., a little over a month after leaving office and a month before his seventy-seventh birthday. He is interred in Elm Lawn Cemetery of Bay City.