He won election to the United States House of Representatives in 1960 and gained a reputation as an outspoken moderate during his time in Congress.

He was also a nephew by marriage of former U.S. Supreme Court Justice David Davis, a confidante of President Abraham Lincoln.

Among the guests in attendance were U.N. Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim and James Murray, British ambassador to the United Nations.

While at Yale, he was a member of the Yale Political Union and the Chi Psi fraternity, where he became friends with another fraternity brother from Delta Kappa Epsilon, future U.S. President Gerald Ford, and of the Berzelius Secret Senior Society (pictured with his Berzelius Class of '39 as [15] Scranton attended Yale Law School from 1939 to 1941, dropping out in advance of World War II, enlisting in the United States Army Air Corps and serving as an Air Transport Command pilot during the war.

The couple had four children, a daughter and three sons, Susan, William Worthington, Joseph Curtis and Peter Kip.

[14] Scranton practiced law and then entered the business community after the war becoming successful in several firms in northeastern Pennsylvania.

In 1959, Eisenhower appointed Scranton as a special assistant to U.S. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles and later Christian Herter.

[14] Scranton's name recognition and family connections helped him win a 17,000 vote victory over incumbent Stanley Prokop in a largely Democratic district in 1960.

[18] The Chester school protests in Chester, Pennsylvania, in the spring of 1964 led by George Raymond of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and Stanley Branche of the Committee for Freedom Now (CFFN) against the de facto segregation of public schools prompted Scranton to implement the Pennsylvania Human Relations commission.

Pennsylvania State Police, FBI agents, local law enforcement, and civilian volunteers scoured the mountains around Shade Gap and Burnt Cabins.

On May 17, the kidnapper, William Diller Hollenbaugh, shot and killed FBI Agent Terry Ray Anderson.

There was a shootout at Rubeck's farm in Burnt Cabins and Hollenbaugh was killed; Peggy Ann Bradnick was rescued without serious injury.

Although Scranton did not actively seek the 1964 Republican nomination for President of the United States in the beginning, a "Draft Scranton" movement quickly gathered momentum among moderate and liberal Republicans who saw him as an alternative to conservative frontrunner, Senator Barry Goldwater, and other Republicans who feared that Goldwater's polarizing views would lead to defeat, after the campaign of Goldwater's liberal opponent, New York governor Nelson Rockefeller, had lost steam.

[20] Republican National Committee Chairman and US Representative William E. Miller of New York was nominated for Vice President.

In accordance with his 1966 pledge never to seek elected office, he rebuffed a draft movement encouraging him to run for the U.S. Senate.

He was also associated with the Trilateral Commission, the Council on Foreign Relations, and was a trustee of Yale University, his alma mater.

[22] His measured approach to diplomacy and genuine interest in human rights earned him much respect in his short time in office.

[24] Nine days after his 96th birthday, Scranton died on July 28, 2013, from a cerebral hemorrhage at a retirement community in Montecito, California, where he lived with his wife.

[28] In Jeff Greenfield's alternate history book If Kennedy Lived, Scranton is featured as Senator Barry Goldwater's running mate in the 1964 presidential election, instead of William E. Miller.