“He had a great long life, and he had a lot of fun,” William Saxbe Jr., Saxbe’s eldest son, said of his father, who passed away on August 24. “Like the highest tribute they can give you in preschool, he played well with others.”

Saxbe turned in an accomplished political career before he retired from politics in 1977. Born in Mechanicsburg on June 24, 1916, Saxbe attended and graduated from Ohio State University law school. He was first elected to the Ohio House of Representatives 1947, where he would later serve as Speaker of the House in 1953 and 1954. Saxbe was elected as Ohio’s Attorney General in 1957, and he held that office until he left Columbus for Washington in 1968, when he was elected as a United States Senator.
Saxbe served as Senator until 1973, when he was appointed by President Nixon, who he spoke out against several times throughout his career, as U.S. Attorney General. He served as Attorney General until 1975, and was then appointed by President Ford as the U.S. Ambassador to India. He retired from politics in 1977 and returned to Mechanicsburg, where he resumed his law practice for the remainder of his life.

“He was a tremendous person, and that’s what made him such a great politician,” said Saxbe’s former assistant U.S. attorney general Vincent Rakestraw.
Saxbe Jr. agreed.

“Most of the people who considered him an enemy ended up either in jail or pardoned,” Saxbe Jr. said to laughter from the crowd, referencing the Watergate scandal that reached full steam during Saxbe’s time as Attorney General.

Current Ohio governor Ted Strickland attended the memorial, in addition to former U.S. Senator Mike DeWine. Saxbe Jr. and Rakestraw spoke at the memorial service, in addition to his former assistant Ohio attorney general Robert Duncan and current Ohio Supreme Court Justice Paul Pfeifer. Family members read excerpts from his books during the service as well, which also included a twenty-one gun salute to Saxbe, who also served in the Ohio National Guard.

“When I was young and needed a job… he got me one in one week,” Duncan said, teary-eyed. “He was my hero.”

The service also included Saxbe’s favorite music, Dixieland jazz, and a recording of a Bing Crosby song that Crosby wrote about a fishing trip the two lifelong friends once took.

The lasting legacy of Saxbe, however, was best summed up by his son, Saxbe Jr.

“He traveled the world, but each time he left [Mechanicsburg], he came back,” Saxbe Jr. said. “He died less than a mile from where he was born, right here in Mechanicsburg.”