Robert Alphonso Taft (1889-1953) was a conservative politician who served three terms in the U.S. Senate, where he was recognized as "Mr. Republican."

Robert Alphonso Taft was born September 8, 1889, in Cincinnati, Ohio, to William Howard Taft and Helen Herron Taft. His grandfather Alphonso had been President Grant's secretary of war and attorney general and his father was to be in turn solicitor general, a federal appeals judge, civil governor of the Philippines, and ultimately the only person ever to serve as president of the United States and afterward as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.

At the age of ten Robert left Cincinnati with his family for Manila for three years. In 1903 he was sent to Taft School in Connecticut which his uncle Horace had founded and which placed a premium on academic achievement. He then enrolled at Yale as his father and grandfather had done before...