Chauncey H. Browning Jr.
Chauncey H. Browning Jr. was an American attorney and politician. A Democrat from West Virginia, he was elected four times as West Virginia Attorney General, serving from 1969 to 1985.
Browning was born in Charleston in 1934, the son of the Chauncey H. Browning Sr. and Evelyn Mahone Browning. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree from the West Virginia University in 1956. He attended the West Virginia University College of Law, serving as the editor-in-chief of West Virginia Law Review, receiving his law degree in 1958. Following graduation, Browning served as a law clerk to Judge Benjamin Franklin Moore of the United States District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia. He engaged in the practice of law in Charleston and subsequently served as the state Commissioner of Public Institutions.
Browning was elected Attorney General in 1968 and re-elected in 1972, 1976 and 1980. He was the first Attorney General to serve four terms in West Virginia's history. He is also the only West Virginia Attorney General to have served as president of the National Association of Attorneys General.
During his tenure, Browning established the Consumer Protection Division and reviewed and revised environmental and natural resources laws, rules and regulations. Also during his tenure, West Virginia sued the Pittston Coal Company for $100 million in damages for the February 26, 1972 Buffalo Creek Flood. Governor Arch A. Moore Jr. later settled the suit for $1 million.
Browning did not seek re-election in 1984, but rather ran for governor and lost a hotly contested three-way primary and left office in January 1985. He returned to his private practice and retired in 2008. Browning died on January 1, 2010 at Charleston Area Medical Center at 75.
