J. Arthur Younger

Jesse Arthur Younger was a United States Representative for California. He served from April 11, 1893 to June 20, 1967. He was a member of the Republican Party and the first representative from San Mateo County in California.

Born in Albany, Oregon, as an adolescent he moved to Kirkland, Washington, where he attended the public schools. Younger graduated from the University of Washington at Seattle in 1915. He was drafted during World War I, serving in the Washington National Guard, and then overseas serving with the Forty-eighth Coast Artillery Corps for ten months until June 1919 when he was discharged as a captain. From 1920 to 1930, he worked at the Seattle Title Trust Co. as a director, manager, and vice-president for the mortgage division. He subsequently became president of the Seattle Mortgage Loan Co. from 1930 to 1934.

He was elected to Congress in 1952, where he served until his death from leukemia in Washington, D.C. in 1967. He defeated William Keller in 1962 to retain his seat. Younger voted in favor of the Civil Rights Acts of 1957, 1960, and 1964, as well as the 24th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

State Route 92 is the principal thoroughfare of San Mateo County and was named after Younger as the “J. Arthur Younger Freeway”.