Born in 1927 in
Los Angeles,
California, Rousselot attended the public schools of
San Marino and
South Pasadena. He received a B.A. from
Principia College,
Elsah, Illinois, in 1949, and went to work as an insurance agent. During the 1950s he also was an author and public relations consultant. From 1954 to 1955, Rousselot served as assistant to the public relations director of Pacific Finance Corp.,
Los Angeles, California. He served as deputy to the chairman of the
California Board of Equalization in 1956, and was director of public information for the
Federal Housing Administration in Washington, D.C., from 1958 to 1960. Rousselot resigned his position at the FHA to return to southern California to run for Congress. His first notable political activity had been as a delegate to the 1956 Republican National Convention, and he had served as a member of the executive committee of the California Republican State Central Committee in 1956–57.
Congress Rousselot was elected as a
Republican to the
Eighty-seventh Congress (January 3, 1961 – January 3, 1963) from
California's 25th congressional district, defeating Democratic incumbent
George A. Kasem. He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection to the
Eighty-eighth Congress in 1962, losing to Democrat
Ronald B. Cameron. During the next few years, Rousselot worked as a management consultant and as Western regional director for the
ultraconservative John Birch Society. His longtime association with this group had stimulated controversy during his career as a Congressman. Two of his allies during this time were the ultraconservative, resigned
General Edwin Walker, and the segregationist Reverend
Billy James Hargis. All three were longtime members of the
John Birch Society, with Rousselot serving as the group's national public relations director. Rousselot sat on the "Co-ordination of Conservative Efforts" committee of Hargis'
Anti-Communist Liaison organization. Rousselot was elected to the
Ninety-first Congress, by special election, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of
United States Representative Glenard P. Lipscomb in
California's 24th congressional district, and reelected to the six succeeding Congresses (June 30, 1970 – January 3, 1983). In the Republican primary for the 1970 special election, he narrowly edged out former congressman
Patrick Hillings and former football star and doctor
Bill McColl. In the special general election he handily defeated Democrat
Myrlie Evers, the widow of assassinated civil rights activist
Medgar Evers. The district still was numbered the 24th when he won full terms in 1970 and 1972, but a 1973 redistricting ordered by the
California Supreme Court renumbered it the 26th. Rousselot was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1982 after a partisan redistricting divided his old congressional district, leading him to run in the 30th District represented by Democrat
Matthew Martinez, who won the general election by 54% to 46%.
Later career Rousselot served as special assistant to President
Ronald Reagan for business matters in 1983. He was president of the National Council of Savings Institutions, a lobbying group, from 1985 to 1988. He was an unsuccessful candidate for nomination to the One Hundred Third Congress in 1992 in the newly redrawn 25th Congressional District, which ultimately was won by Republican
Howard McKeon. == Death ==