Jurist William H. Rehnquist was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on October 1, 1924. During World War II he served in the Army Air Corps as a weather observer. He returned to civilian life after the war and attended Stanford University, graduating with both a B.A. and an M.A. in 1948. He received a second M.A. in 1950.

Rehnquist returned to Stanford to earn a law degree in 1952. After graduation, he clerked for Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson for a year. Rehnquist then settled in Phoenix, Arizona where he practiced law for 16 years until being appointed Assistant Attorney General by President Nixon in 1969.

Nixon nominated him as Associate Justice in 1971 and in 1986, he was nominated by President Reagan to become Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Rehnquist presided over a steady rightward turn of the Court. In his last year of life he fought cancer and died while still being Chief Justice