in 1976 in 1982 He served in the
United States Navy during
World War II, after which he settled in
Grand Rapids, Michigan and established a successful private law practice. From 1968 to 1976, Sawyer was a member of the Michigan Law Revision Commission. From 1975 to 1976, he was prosecuting attorney for
Kent County. In 1976, Sawyer defeated incumbent
Democrat Richard Vander Veen to reclaim
Michigan's 5th congressional district for the
Republicans. The seat had been held by
Gerald R. Ford until he was appointed to become
Vice President of the United States; it had been in Republican hands without interruption from 1913 until Vander Veen's victory. Sawyer benefited from the presence of Ford atop the ticket in his bid for a full term as president. Sawyer was elected to the
Ninety-fifth and to the three succeeding Congresses, serving from January 3, 1977 to January 3, 1985. However, he did not have nearly as easy a time of it as Ford or his Republican predecessors. In 1978, he only defeated Democratic challenger Dale Sprik by 0.7 percent, a difference of 1,100 votes. He defeated Sprik by seven points in a rematch. In 1982, he defeated former state representative Stephen Monsma with 53 percent of the vote. These would be the last times that a Democrat managed 40 percent of the vote in the district in the 20th century (it was renumbered as the
3rd district in 1993). Sawyer served on the
House Select Committee on Assassinations investigating the
assassinations of John F. Kennedy and
Martin Luther King, Jr. Sawyer was one of four members who dissented from the Committee's finding that
Dictabelt evidence suggested that Kennedy was "probably assassinated as a result of a conspiracy." Sawyer stated that the conclusions in both cases were based on "supposition upon supposition upon supposition". == Death ==