Born in
Carrier Mills, Illinois, Wampler earned a B.A. from
Indiana State University in
Terre Haute, Indiana (at the time, Indiana State Teachers College), and an M.A. in 1940 from Indiana University. An excellent collegiate athlete, he was awarded 12 letters by Indiana State from 1928 to 1931, he entered the local high school teaching and coaching ranks following graduation. Over the next 21 years he was a teacher, the head football coach and assistant coach in tennis, golf and basketball at his alma mater, Gerstmeyer High School in Terre Haute, where he had lettered in four sports (baseball, basketball, football and track) as a student. From 1947 to 1949, during off seasons, he was a radio sports director and announcer.
World War II A veteran of both World War II and the Korean War, he served in the
United States Navy, (1944–46 and 1950–54); and in the
United States Naval Reserve, (1946–49 and 1954–60) for a total of 15 years.
Congress Wampler was elected as a
Democrat to the
Eighty-sixth Congress (January 3, 1959 – January 3, 1961). He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection to the
Eighty-seventh Congress in 1960 and for election to the
Eighty-eighth Congress in 1962.
Later career and death He was appointed to the Indiana-Illinois Wabash Valley Interstate Commission, serving from 1961 to 1962, and was regional coordinator, U.S. Department of the Interior, from 1963 to 1970. He also served as state and federal funding coordinator for the Ohio State Department of Natural Resources and Transportation from 1971 to 1976. He died at age 90 in
Mason, Ohio, and was interred in Roselawn Memorial Park, Terre Haute, Indiana. ==References==