Ed Pease, Chairman of the National OA Committee, was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1996 from Indiana's 7^th Congressional District.

James Edward West, born May 16, 1876, never knew his father. His mother died when Jimmy was six. He spent most of his youth in a Washington, D.C. orphanage, except for two years starting at age eight when he was in a hospital being treated for tuberculosis, which left one leg crippled, often strapped on his back.