Warren A. Taylor

Who was Warren A. Taylor?

Warren Arthur Taylor was an American Democratic politician from Alaska active during its territorial period and first years of statehood. He became the first Speaker of the Alaska House of Representatives.

Taylor, a Baptist, was born in Chehalis, Washington on April 2, 1891. He grew up in Bellingham, Washington, where he attended grade and high school. In 1909, following high school graduation, he moved to what was then known as the District of Alaska, settling in Cordova. After many years of working for the Copper River and Northwestern Railway, he passed the bar and began working as a lawyer.

Taylor would move to Kodiak briefly during the 1940s before settling in Fairbanks, where he would live for the remainder of his life.

As a lawyer, he focused on criminal defense law. In one case in 1948, he represented a young civilian employee at Ladd Field named Joseph Vogler, who sought an injunction against University Bus Lines and its owners Paul and Flora Greimann. Vogler had a public, years-long feud with the Greimanns, centered on their company's practice of having their vehicles straddle the center line of the narrow Cushman Street Bridge.