Clifford Orville Branstad (April 23, 1924 – November 10, 2014) was an American politician who served in the Iowa House of Representatives between 1979 and 1997.
Born in Thompson, Iowa, and one of five children to Lydia Siekmeier and Philip A. G. Branstad,[1][2] Clifford Branstad attended the local high school, but left in January 1943 to enlist in the Army Air Corps, where he served 43 months, flying 41 missions for the Army Air Force.
[1][3] Upon his return to the United States and still without a high school diploma, Branstad enrolled at the Dunwoody Institute in Minnesota.
He then earned a bachelor's degree in sociology and economics from the University of Iowa in 1948 after having studied at Central State Teachers College in Wisconsin.
[1][4][5] Branstad later became a pre-law student at Georgetown University and then moved to Chicago to work in the insurance industry.