FAYETTEVILLE -- A collection of papers from former U.S. Rep. Ray Thornton is now open to the public through the Special Collections department of the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville.
Thornton served on a six-member committee that met in 1974 to investigate the Watergate break-in and related events. As a member of the House Judiciary Committee, Thornton drafted articles of impeachment against President Richard Nixon, who became the only U.S. president to resign his position.
Thornton, elected to be the state's attorney general in 1970, would leave Congress in 1978. He went on to serve as president of Arkansas State University and later as president of the University of Arkansas System. He was again elected as a U.S. representative in 1990.
Thornton later was elected to serve on the Arkansas Supreme Court. In 2009, he served as the first ever chairman of the Arkansas Lottery Commission, resigning from the commission in 2010.
The Ray Thornton Papers include Watergate-related materials such as correspondence and investigative background materials, according to UA. Thornton donated his papers to UA in 2013.
Metro on 07/17/2015