John C. West

West was born in Camden, South Carolina and grew up in the farming community of Charlotte Thompson near Camden. The following May, his father, along with seventy-six other persons, was killed in a fire at the nearby Cleveland School. His mother and maternal grandmother escaped unharmed from the fire. In 1942, he West graduated from The Citadel with a bachelor's degree in political science. After graduation, he enlisted in the United States Army as an intelligence officer during World War II, assigned to stateside service. ==Political career==

Following the war, West earned a law degree from the University of South Carolina School of Law in 1946. From 1948 to 1952, he served on the state Highway Commission. In 1954, he coordinated the unsuccessful U.S. Senate candidacy of Edgar A. Brown, who lost in a write-in campaign waged by former Governor Strom Thurmond. After his tenure as governor, West returned to private law practice and was subsequently appointed by President Jimmy Carter to serve as United States Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, a position that he held from 1977 to 1981. After returning to the United States, he became a professor of Middle Eastern Studies at the University of South Carolina. From 1993 until his death from cancer, he was a partner in the Hilton Head law office of Bethea, Jordan, and Griffin. ==Personal life==

West married Lois Rhame in 1942. They had three children. West died of liver cancer at his home on Hilton Head Island on March 21, 2004. ==References==