William Robert Anderson (June 17, 1921 – February 25, 2007) was an officer in the United States Navy, and a U.S. Representative from Tennessee from 1965 to 1973.

[1] Anderson and his crew received international notice when the Nautilus became the first submarine to sail successfully under the polar ice cap surrounding the North Pole.

[2] The voyage by Anderson and his crew led the way for other submarine exploration beneath the ice cap and gave a decided military advantage to the US.

[2] In 1964, Anderson entered the Democratic primary to replace Sixth District Representative Ross Bass, who was running for the United States Senate to finish the term of the late Estes Kefauver, and he won both the nomination and the subsequent general election.

[2] Anderson proved to be somewhat more liberal than expected for a naval veteran representing a largely-rural district in western and central Tennessee.

In fact, in the Tennessee congressional delegation of that time, only Richard Fulton of the neighboring 5th District (Nashville) had a more liberal voting record.

[8] The two representatives also pressured President Nixon to send an independent task force to investigate the prison and "prevent further degradation and death".

His son, William, was the classic "early adopter" of mini-computer technology, the DEC PDP-11/70 specifically, and the two of them helped establish a timesharing company that offered members of Congress an opportunity to improve constituent services.