Richard Vander Veen
American politician (1922-2006)
Richard Franklin Vander Veen (November 26, 1922 – March 3, 2006) was a politician from the U.S. state of Michigan.
Early life and education
Born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Vander Veen attended the local public schools and graduated from Muskegon High School in 1940. He earned a BS from the University of South Carolina in 1946 and an LL.B. from Harvard Law School in 1949. He was admitted to the Michigan bar in 1949 and commenced practice in Grand Rapids. In 1951, he, Walter Freihofer and George Cook formed what was to become the third-largest law firm in Grand Rapids. He retired from the law firm when he was elected to Congress. He is a relative of musician Anthony Kiedis.
Military service
With the outbreak of World War II, Vander Veen enlisted in the United States Navy in January 1941 and served until 1946, seeing active duty in the South Pacific Theater. He also served in the Korean War from 1950 to 1952 with the rank of lieutenant (junior grade).
Political career
In 1958, Vander Veen made an unsuccessful bid as the Democratic Party candidate to unseat incumbent Republican U.S. Representative Gerald Ford in Michigan's 5th congressional district.
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Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 1, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1320005. VIAF identifies the subject as 156181266. The Library of Congress control number is n2010060492. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1922, 2006, 1940 and 1946.
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This entry incorporates text from “Richard Vander Veen” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.