James Allen Rhodes (September 13, 1909 – March 4, 2001) was an American attorney and Republican politician who served as the 61st and 63rd Governor of Ohio from 1963 to 1971 and from 1975 to 1983.

Subsequently, the family moved again, this time to Columbus, because Rhodes earned a modest basketball scholarship to Ohio State University.

[2] After dropping out of college, Rhodes opened a business called Jim's Place across from the university on North High Street.

[4] In 1934, Rhodes began to use his position as a local businessman to climb up the Columbus political ladder, starting on a ward committee.

As surrounding communities grew or were constructed, they came to require access to waterlines, which was under the sole control of the municipal water system.

[2] Rhodes served two terms as governor, and he also was a "favorite son" presidential candidate who controlled the Ohio delegation to the Republican National Conventions in 1964 and 1968, before retiring in 1971.

He ran for the U.S. Senate in 1970 and narrowly lost, to U.S. Representative Robert Taft Jr., in the primary election, which was two days after the events at Kent State.

[11]Since the Ohio Constitution limits the governor to two four-year terms, when Rhodes initially filed to run again in 1974, his petitions were refused by the Secretary of State.

Rhodes sued, and the Ohio Supreme Court ruled that the limitation was on consecutive terms, thus freeing him to return to office by narrowly defeating incumbent John Gilligan in an upset in the 1974 election.

"[12] On August 16, 1977 Rhodes was hit in the face and shoulder with a banana cream pie thrown by Steve Conliff, as about 25 young people disrupted the opening of the Ohio State Fair.

Rhodes co-authored stories of historical fiction with Dean Jauchius, including The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln, The Court-Martial of Oliver Hazard Perry and Johnny Shiloh, a novel of the Civil War.

[14] The last was adapted to a 1963 television movie by Walt Disney, also called Johnny Shiloh, for which Rhodes received writer's credit.