William A. Dawson

Born in Layton, Utah, Dawson attended the public schools. He graduated from the law department of the University of Utah in 1926. He was admitted to the bar the same year and commenced practice in Salt Lake City, and was County attorney of Davis County from 1926 to 1934, and mayor of Layton 1935–1939. He served as member of the Utah State Senate from 1940 to 1944.

Dawson was elected as a Republican to the Eightieth Congress (January 3, 1947 – January 3, 1949), defeating a seven-term Democrat. He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1948 to the Eighty-first Congress. In 1950 he sought nomination for the United States Senate, but placed fourth in the nominating convention.^[1]

Dawson was elected to the Eighty-third, replacing the woman who had unseated him in 1948, and reelected to the Eighty-fourth and Eighty-fifth Congresses (January 3, 1953 – January 3, 1959). Dawson voted in favor of the Civil Rights Act of 1957.^[2] He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1958 to the Eighty-sixth Congress.

Legislatively, Dawson served on the Interior and Insular Affairs Committee and sponsored three laws in that field. One failure was a proposal to build a storage project on the upper Colorado River. House Speaker Joseph W. Martin, Jr. pulled the bill in 1954 as too controversial, but the Glen Canyon project was approved by the following Democratic congress.

He served as vice president of Zions First National Bank from 1959 to 1969. He was a resident of Salt Lake City, Utah, until his death on November 7, 1981. He was interred in Kaysville Cemetery, Kaysville, Utah.