Lawyer, judge, and U.S. senator, Sam J. Ervin, Jr. (1896-1984) became a popular figure during one of the most trying times for the United States, when he chaired the Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities--the Watergate Committee.

Sam Ervin was born September 27, 1896, in Morganton, North Carolina. His ancestors, Scotch-Irish Presbyterians, fled from religious persecution to settle in the new land in 1732. Educated in public schools and blessed with an insatiable appetite for learning, Ervin earned his college degree from the University of North Carolina in 1917, enlisted in World War I, and was wounded in combat in France. At one point during the war Ervin resigned his commission as a lieutenant as that was the only way he could return to the front and combat. A much decorated hero for his actions, when he returned home he attended Harvard Law School, graduating in 1922. From the mid-1920s...