US Congressman. He was born to Charles W. Byrnes and Harriet P. Schumacher Byrnes in Green Bay, Wisconsin, he attended public schools, graduated from Green Bay East High School in Green Bay, Wisconsin, and graduated from the University of Wisconsin in Madison, Wisconsin, in 1935. In 1938, he graduated from law school and commenced to practicing in Green Bay, Wisconsin, that same year. He then entered politics and served as a special deputy commissioner of banking for the State of Wisconsin from 1938 until he resigned in 1940. In 1944, he decided to run for a seat in the United States Congress and was elected to the Seventy-Ninth Congress, beating the one-term incumbent and professional football player with the Green Bay Packers LaVern Dilweg. In 1947, he married Barbara Preston and the couple had six children including John R. (who would later become the United States District Attorney for Western Wisconsin). A Republican, he then served Wisconsin's 8th District (Seventy-Ninth Congress and the thirteen succeeding Congresses) in the United States House of Representatives from 1945 to 1973. While in the United States Congress, he served as Chairman of the House of Republican Policy Committee from 1959 to 1965, and as a Member of the Committee on Ways and Means from 1963 to 1972. He became one of the most influential Republican members in the House and, with Ways and Means Committee Chairman Wilbur D. Mills, forged many of the bills that established a tax, debt, Social Security and trade laws. He was credited with much of the work that led to the Tax Reform Act of 1969 and he later was a vocal, but an unsuccessful opponent of then-President Richard M. Nixon's revenue-sharing proposal, which became law a year after Congressman Byrnes retired. He also lost the battle for providing voluntary rather than mandatory health insurance for the aged. He was not a candidate for reelection to the Ninety-Third Congress when his term ended in 1973. He also served as a Member of the Wisconsin State Senate representing its 2nd District from 1940 to 1944, Delegate to the Republican National Convention from Wisconsin in 1956, 1960, and 1964, and was a Candidate for the Republic Nomination for President in 1964. After his term in the United States Congress had expired on January 3, 1973, he worked at his law practice in Washington, D.C., soon after leaving politics. A resident of Arlington, Virginia, he was traveling to Wisconsin for a medical checkup at the Marshfield Clinic in Marshfield, Wisconsin, when he suffered a sudden stroke at the Central Wisconsin Airport in Mosinee, Wisconsin. He was taken to the St. Joseph's Hospital in Marshfield, Wisconsin, where he passed away a few days later at the age of 71. His funeral was held at the Schauer & Schumacher Funeral Home and was interred in the Allouez Catholic Cemetery And Chapel Mausoleum in Green Bay, Wisconsin.