J. Edward Roush, author of 911

John Edward Roush was an American lawyer and World War II veteran who came to Huntington from Oklahoma where he was born September 12, 1920. He graduated from Huntington High School in 1938 and Huntington College in 1942.

During World War II Roush fought in the Battle of the Bulge as a member of the U.S. Army. Upon returning from war, he graduated from Indiana University School of Law in 1949. He began practicing law in Huntington, and served in the Indiana state legislature from 1949-50. Roush then served in the Korean War and once again returned to Huntington after the war, and was elected Huntington County prosecuting attorney from 1954-58.

As a Democrat, Roush was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1958 and served eight terms as a U.S. Representative from Indiana from 1959 to 1969, and again from 1971 to 1977. He remained in Congress until losing the 1976 election to Dan Quayle.

Roush’s signature legislation from his time in office is the national emergency number, 911. In 1967 he participated in a Congressional hearing on fire safety. One of the speakers said that time was a major factor in fighting fires and saving lives. The three digit dialing number was an outgrowth of this thought, and Roush worked with the phone industry to establish the emergency phone system.

The first 911 call was made on February 16, 1968 in Haleyville, Alabama, the first city in the country to install the system. Additional communities began to adopt 911, and on March 1, 1968, Roush’s hometown of Huntington became the first in the Bell System to install 911. Roush made the first 911 call in the AT&T system from the Indiana Bell Company to the police department in Huntington, which received the call on a specially installed red telephone, and Roush is credited with the saving of countless lives.

Roush also studied environmental issues and worked on flood control. Huntington Dam was built as the result of these efforts and the dam and Huntington Reservoir were renamed J. Edward Roush Lake and Roush Dam in his honor in 1997. He also worked toward the Salamonie and Mississinewa reservoir creations.

After his political career, Roush practiced law in Huntington once again, and was interim president of Huntington College in 1989. His wife Polly was an elementary school teacher in the Huntington County Community School Corporation. Roush passed away March 26, 2004.