Born on a farm in Hamilton County, near Noblesville, Indiana, Roudebush attended Hamilton County schools. He graduated from Butler University, Indianapolis, in 1941.

World War II edit

He served in the United States Army from November 18, 1941, to August 12, 1944, as a demolition specialist for the Ordnance Department in Middle Eastern, North African, and Italian campaigns. He was a farmer and a partner in a livestock commission company. He served as National Commander of the Veterans of Foreign Wars in 1957–1958, and as chairman of the Indiana Veterans Commission from 1954 to 1960.

Roudebush was elected as a Republican to the Eighty-seventh and to the four succeeding Congresses (January 3, 1961 – January 3, 1971). He was not a candidate in 1970 for reelection, but was an unsuccessful candidate for election to the United States Senate against incumbent Democrat Vance Hartke in the closest Senate election in Indiana history.^{[citation needed]}

He later served as the Administrator of Veterans Affairs, Veterans Administration from 1974 to 1977.

He died on January 28, 1995, and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery.^[1] The Richard L. Roudebush V.A. Medical Center in Indianapolis was named in his honor.

• List of members of the House Un-American Activities Committee

• United States Congress. "Richard L. Roudebush (id: R000464)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.

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  Wernher von Braun and Roudebush (L) discuss Apollo models.
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  Representative Roudebush and other members of the House Committee on Science and Astronautics visit the Marshall Space Flight Center on March 9, 1962 to gather first-hand information of the nation's space exploration program.

  This article incorporates public domain material from the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress