Rodino, Peter Wallace, Jr. [key], 1909–2005, U.S. congressman, b. Newark, N.J., as Pellegrino Rodino, Jr.; grad. New Jersey Law School, 1937. Awarded the Bronze Star while serving (1941–46) in the army during World War II, he returned to his hometown and won election in 1948 to the U.S. House of Representatives. A liberal Democrat, he sponsored civil-rights and immigration-reform legislation, and in 1973 became chairman of the Judiciary Committee. The following year he chaired the hearings that passed three articles of impeachment against President Richard Nixon as a result of the Watergate affair, which led the president to resign. Rodino was a law professor after his retirement (1989) from Congress.
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