Robert Grier Stephens Jr.
Robert Grier Stephens Jr. was a United States Representative from Georgia.
Stephens was born in Atlanta, Georgia. He was a great-great nephew of Alexander Stephens, a grandson of Clement Anselm Evans and a distant cousin of 19th-century U.S. Supreme Court Justice Robert Cooper Grier. Robert Stephens graduated from Boys High School in 1931. He attended the University of Georgia at Athens and obtained a Bachelor of Arts in 1935, a Masters in 1937 and a Bachelor of Laws in 1941. During his education at UGA, he attended the University of Hamburg in Germany in 1935 and 1936.
After serving in the United States Army from 1941 through 1946, Stephens joined the UGA faculty. During the Nuremberg trials following World War II, Stephens served on the staff of Robert H. Jackson, the United States Supreme Court Justice that served as the chief prosecutor for the United States during the trials. Stephens also maintained a private law practice in Athens in addition to serving as city attorney.
In 1951, Stephens was elected to the Georgia Senate and was reelected through 1953 when he was elected to the Georgia House of Representatives. He served in the state House through 1959. He was elected 1960 as a Democrat representing Georgia's 10th congressional district in the 87th United States Congress and won reelection to seven additional terms in that body until he chose not to run for reelection in 1976. During his congressional service, Stephens served as a delegate to the 1964 Democratic National Convention. He died on February 20, 2003 in Athens and was buried in that city's Oconee Hill Cemetery.
