Edwin L. Mechem

Infobox Senator
name = Edwin L. Mechem


jr/sr =United States Senator
state = New Mexico
term_start = November 30, 1962
term_end = November 3, 1964
preceded = Dennis Chavez
succeeded = Joseph Montoya
order2=15th
office2= Governor of New Mexico
term_start2=January 1, 1951
term_end2=January 1, 1955
lieutenant2=
predecessor2=Thomas J. Mabry
successor2=John F. Simms
order3=17th
office3= Governor of New Mexico
term_start3=January 1, 1957
term_end3=January 1, 1959
lieutenant3=
predecessor3=John F. Simms
successor3=John Burroughs
order4=19th
office4= Governor of New Mexico
term_start4=January 1, 1961
term_end4=November 30, 1962
lieutenant4=
predecessor4=John Burroughs
successor4=Tom Bolack
birth_date=birth date|1912|7|2|mf=y
birth_place=Alamogordo, New Mexico
death_date=death date and age|2002|11|27|1912|7|2
death_place=Albuquerque, New Mexico
spouse=Dorothy Ellen
profession=Attorney
residence=Albuquerque
party= Republican
religion=Methodist
footnotes=

Edwin Leard Mechem (July 2, 1912ndash November 27, 2002) was a prominent Republican politician from New Mexico. He served three times as Governor of New Mexico and represented the state in the United States Senate. Mechem was the first person born in the 20th century to become the state's governor, as well as the first person born in New Mexico after statehood to succeed to the office.

Born in Alamogordo, he attended Alamogordo and Las Cruces, NM schools. He attended New Mexico A & M (now New Mexico State University), 1930-31 and 1935. He worked as a land surveyor for the U.S. Reclamation Service in Las Cruces from 1932 to 1935. He transferred his college credits to the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville and graduated in 1939 in law. He was admitted to the New Mexico Bar the same year and practiced in Las Cruces and later Albuquerque. He was an FBI agent from 1942 to 1945 and a member of the New Mexico House of Delegates (Representatives), 1947-48.

A member of the Committee on Government Security, 1956-57, and a member of the American Law Institute, he was appointed to the U.S. Senate when long-time senator Dionisio "Dennis" Chavez died in November 1962. He served until November 1964 and resumed his law practice after an unsuccessful run for reelection. He was a member of the New Mexico Commission on Reorganization of the Executive Branch and a member of the New Mexico State Police Commission.

He voted against the Civil Rights Act of 1964, yet was made a Federal Judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico, serving from 1970 to 2002. He was related to another New Mexican Governor, Merritt C. Mechem who was his uncle. His father, Edwin Mechem, Sr. was a respected judge in Las Cruces.