Alvin E. O'Konski, Republican congressman representing the Tenth District of Wisconsin, was born May 26, 1904, on a farm in Kewaunee County. O'Konski attended the local public schools, and then the University of Iowa. He received his bachelor's degree from State Teachers' College at Oshkosh, Wisconsin in 1927, and later did graduate work at the University of Wisconsin.
After graduation, Mr. O'Konski taught in Omro, Oconto, and Pulaski, Wisconsin high schools; Oregon State College at Corvallis, 1929-1931; and the University of Detroit, 1936-1938. His undergraduate majors were history and political science, but his college teaching was in speech. A well-known public speaker, he campaigned on behalf of Wisconsin Republican candidates in 1938; published a newsletter about state politics in 1939; and in 1940 became editor and publisher of the Montreal River Miner, a weekly newspaper in Hurley, Wisconsin. In 1947, he sold the newspaper and established radio station WLIN in Merrill. (The station later moved to Wausau and changed its call letters to WOSA.)
Alvin O'Konski's congressional career began in 1942 when he was elected representative of Wisconsin's Tenth District (which included at various times Douglas, Bayfield, Ashland, Iron, Vilas, Burnette, Washburn, Sawyer, Price, Oneida, Lincoln, Taylor, Polk, Barron, Rusk, St. Croix, Dunn, Chippewa, and Eau Claire counties.) He served in Congress until defeated in November 1972 by David Obey. His 1957 attempt to win the Senate seat made vacant by the death of Joseph R. McCarthy had been unsuccessful.
Congressman O'Konski's political views were generally conservative. He is best known for his anti-communist activities. He was president of the World Bill of Rights Association, 1945; director of the World League to Stop Communism, 1947; and president of the Anti-Communist Association, 1950. He was voted the “most distinguished American for 1945” in balloting conducted by the Polish language newspaper Everybody's Daily for his work on behalf of small nations against communism and the Yalta agreement. Particularly interested in Poland and Polish issues, he received the “Polonia Restitvta” medal as the outstanding member of a committee investigating the Katyn Forest Massacre of 15,000 Allied officers in early World War II. Mr. O'Konski served on several congressional committees including Labor, Pensions, Veterans Affairs, and Armed Services.
