TRENTON, N.J. — Former Rep. Peter W. Rodino Jr., a little-noticed Democratic congressman until he led the House impeachment investigation of President Nixon, died yesterday. He was 95.
Mr. Rodino died of congestive heart failure at his West Orange home, said a spokeswoman for Seton Hall University Law School, where Mr. Rodino was a professor.
Mr. Rodino spent 10 years working his way through law school at night and after one unsuccessful try, won election to Congress in 1948. He was re-elected 19 times.
Named chairman of the House Judiciary Committee just months before the panel began its historic impeachment hearings in 1974, Mr. Rodino's fair handling of Nixon's impeachment hearings was credited with helping produce a bipartisan majority. The committee approved three articles of impeachment against Nixon, finishing its work on July 30, 1974.
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