William Emil Hess served in Congress for 14 terms, separated over three separate tenures in office. Though his terms were not consecutive, he still served the longest cumulative time in Congress of all the representatives from Ohio's second district, and served the greatest number of terms in all.

Hess was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, on February 13, 1898. He attended the local public schools, the University of Cincinnati, and Cincinnati Law School. During World War I Hess served as a private in the U.S. Army. After the war, he gained admission to the bar in 1919, and began practicing law in Cincinnati.

Hess became a member of the Cincinnati City Council and served as such from 1922-1926. In 1928, Hess won the 1928 race Congress as a 2nd District Republican. Hess was connected to the minting of the Cincinnati Commemorative Half Dollar in 1936. He sponsored a bill to authorize minting the half dollar in honor of the fiftieth anniversary of Cincinnati as a center of music. The bill passed on March 31, and authorized 15,000 coins to be stamped that year only.

Hess won re-election to office for the following three terms but lost the election in 1936 to Democratic candidate Herbert Bigelow. Bigelow's election marked an interruption in a 20-year Republican representation of the 2nd District. However, Hess ran against Bigelow again in 1938, and won back the seat.

During his second time in office, Hess served in the 76th Congress and won re-election to four terms afterward. In 1940, Hess worked with Senator Harold Burton to try to get funding from federal agencies to build an airport in southwest Ohio near Cincinnati. However, politicians from Cincinnati were not in a good position to obtain federal aid during the 1940s since none of them were supporters of the Roosevelt administration or the New Deal. At first, the WPA chose Boone County, KY, as the site for the airport instead of Cincinnati. The funding for an airport near Cincinnati was finally approved in 1942.

In 1948, the Democratic Party took the 2nd District seat back again when Earl Wagner defeated Hess in the election for the 81st Congress. Hess did not give up easily. He chose to run yet again in the 1950 election, and this time Hess defeated Wagner, thus taking the seat back once more. Once again, Hess established himself in office and continued to win re-election to four succeeding Congresses until the 1960 election, when he was not a candidate for re-nomination. His long Congressional career ended January 3, 1961.

This time, Hess returned to practicing law. He lived in Cincinnati until he died there on July 14, 1986, and was buried in Spring Grove Cemetery. William Hess was married to Marjorie White.

Sources:
Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
Cincinnati Historical Society Bulletin, Vol. 33, No. 4
Cincinnati Historical Society Library-Queen City Heritage, Vol. 44, No. 2

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