Georgia politician, physician J. Roy Rowland passes away at 96
He was not on the list.
DUBLIN, Ga. — J. Roy Rowland, Georgia politician and physician, passed away Monday at the age of 96.
The former Representative served in the state legislature from 1976 to 1982.
He was then elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1983, representing Georgia's 8th District.
Rowland was born in Wrightsville and earned his medical degree after serving in World War II, practicing as a physician in Dublin.
He used his medical knowledge to provide leadership in Congress during the AIDS crisis.
Rowland left office in 1994 and returned to Dublin where the city renamed its courthouse for him, the J. Roy Rowland Federal Courthouse.
Rowland attended Wrightsville High School and graduated in 1943. He then attended Emory University at Oxford, Georgia in 1943, South Georgia College in Douglas, Georgia, in 1946 and the University of Georgia in Athens from 1946 to 1948. Rowland earned his M.D. from the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta, Georgia in 1952. His education was obtained around his service in the United States Army during World War II as a sergeant from 1944 to 1946. He was a practicing physician from 1952 to 1982.
He was first elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1982 when he defeated fellow Democrat Billy Lee Evans, who had been tainted by a scandal of accusations of accepting illegal campaign contributions. Rowland served six terms in Congress, from January 3, 1983, to January 3, 1995, and did not seek re-nomination in 1994.
While in Congress, he introduced the Radiation-Exposed Veterans Compensation Act of 1988 and the Veterans Health Programs Extension Act of 1994, both of which were signed into law.
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