Representative Thomas Ludlow Ashley

Thomas William Ludlow “Lud” Ashley (January 11, 1923 – June 15, 2010) was an American businessman, lawyer, and Democratic politician who served as a U.S. Representative from Ohio from 1955 to 1981. Over the course of 13 consecutive terms in the United States House of Representatives, he contributed to the legislative process during a significant period in American history, representing his Ohio constituents and playing a notable role in energy, maritime, civil rights, and housing policy.

Ashley was born on January 11, 1923, in Toledo, Ohio, and raised in the city’s Old West End neighborhood. He was the son of Mary Alida Gouverneur (née Ludlow) Ashley and William Meredith Ashley, who owned a small steel manufacturing firm. His family background included a distinguished political lineage: he was the great-great-grandson of James Mitchell Ashley, a U.S. Representative from Ohio from 1859 to 1869 and one of the principal architects of the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Ashley’s early life was also marked by personal loss; his older brother, William, was killed in May 1944 at age 22 when his Army bomber exploded during a training mission over Massachusetts.

Ashley attended Maumee Valley Country Day School in Toledo and later the Kent School in Kent, Connecticut, from which he graduated in 1942. During World War II, he served in the United States Army as a corporal in the Pacific Theater of Operations. Following his military service, he enrolled at Yale University, where he graduated in 1948. While at Yale, he was a member of the secret society Skull and Bones, where his classmates included future U.S. President George H. W. Bush, with whom he developed a lifelong friendship that would later be noted publicly by Bush.

After completing his undergraduate studies, Ashley returned to Ohio and worked with the Toledo Publicity and Efficiency Commission. Encouraged by Michael DiSalle, then mayor of Toledo and later governor of Ohio, he began legal studies in night classes at the University of Toledo College of Law. He subsequently transferred and graduated from the Ohio State University College of Law in 1951. That same year he was admitted to the bar and commenced the practice of law. In 1952, Ashley joined the staff of Radio Free Europe, serving in Europe as co-director of the press section and later as assistant director of special projects. He resigned from Radio Free Europe on March 1, 1954, in order to return to Ohio and run for Congress.

Ashley was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1954, defeating incumbent independent Frazier Reams by approximately 4,000 votes in a three-way race. Taking office in January 1955, he would serve 13 terms, remaining in Congress until January 3, 1981. A member of the Democratic Party, Ashley participated actively in the legislative process during an era marked by the civil rights movement, the Great Society, the Vietnam War, and the energy crises of the 1970s. In 1961, he was one of six congressmen who voted to withdraw funding for the House Un-American Activities Committee, reflecting his concern about civil liberties. He helped secure passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and was a consistent proponent of anti-poverty and housing legislation, aligning himself with broader Democratic efforts to expand economic opportunity and fair housing.

Over the course of his congressional service, Ashley rose to positions of significant responsibility. He chaired the Select Committee on Energy (Ad Hoc) from 1977 to 1979, a period when the United States was grappling with energy shortages and policy realignments following the oil shocks of the 1970s. From 1979 to 1981, he served as chairman of the House Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries, where he oversaw legislation related to maritime commerce, fisheries, and aspects of environmental and coastal policy. His leadership roles in these committees underscored his influence in shaping national energy and maritime policy at a time of substantial economic and geopolitical change. In 1980, amid a national shift toward the Republican Party, Ashley was defeated in an upset by Republican challenger Ed Weber, ending his congressional career in January 1981.

Following his departure from Congress, Ashley remained active in public and corporate life. Drawing on his legislative experience, particularly in housing and finance, he served on the boards of several major corporations, including Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the nation’s two largest mortgage lenders. He also maintained his longstanding personal and professional connection with George H. W. Bush, serving as a member of the board of the George H. W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum. In these roles, Ashley continued to influence public policy and institutional governance beyond his years in elective office.

Ashley was married twice. In 1956 he married Margaret Mary Sherman; the couple had one daughter, Lise Ashley Murphy, but they separated and divorced shortly thereafter. On June 24, 1967, he married Kathleen Lucey at the Cathedral of St. Mary of the Assumption in Trenton, New Jersey. Kathleen, the daughter of Charley Lucey, editor of The Times Newspapers in Trenton, was a graduate of Trinity College and Georgetown University Law Center and served as Washington editor for the United States Savings and Loan League. Together they had two sons, William Meredith Ashley, who married Monica Ann Manginello in 2008, and Mark Michael Ashley. Kathleen Ashley died of heart failure at George Washington University Hospital in 1997.

In his later years, Ashley resided in Leland, Michigan. He died at his home there on June 15, 2010, from melanoma, at the age of 87. Following his death, former President George H. W. Bush issued a statement noting that he and his wife Barbara “mourn the loss of a very close friend” and describing Ashley as someone who “might well have been my very best friend in life.” Ashley’s long tenure in Congress, his role in major mid‑twentieth‑century legislation, and his continued engagement in public affairs and corporate governance left a lasting imprint on both Ohio and national public life.