Kitchin, Alvin Paul

13 Sept. 1908–22 Oct. 1983

Alvin Paul Kitchin, attorney and congressman, was born in Scotland Neck, the son of Alvin Paul, Sr., and Carrie Virginia Lawrence Kitchin. His family included Governor W. W. Kitchin, Congressman Claude Kitchin, and President Thurman D. Kitchin of Wake Forest College. Alvin Paul Kitchin, Sr., served in the state house of representatives in 1907 and 1909, and in the senate in 1911.

Young Kitchin attended local public schools and was graduated from Oak Ridge Military Academy in 1925. He took undergraduate courses at Wake Forest College for two years and was enrolled at the law school for an additional two years but received no degrees. In January 1930 he passed the state bar examination and began a practice in his native town. He served as chairman of the Halifax County Board of Elections in 1932, and in the fall began a brief period of employment with an engineering and construction firm in Richmond, Va. In January 1933 Kitchin joined the Division of Investigation, U.S. Department of Justice (now the Federal Bureau of Investigation), where he became responsible for several branch offices. Resigning in August 1945, he moved to Wadesboro and joined the law firm of Taylor, Kitchin, and Taylor.

In his new home, Kitchin was a member of the Anson County Board of Elections for six years. In November 1956 he was elected to Congress, where he served a total of three terms and was a member of the Armed Services Committee. The 1960 census necessitated redistricting, and Kitchin's opponent in the November 1962 election was five-term Congressman Charles Raper Jonas, a Republican, who defeated him. In January 1963, Senator Sam J. Ervin named Kitchin chief counsel and staff director of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Codification and Revision. After three years Kitchin returned to his law practice in Wadesboro, where he spent the remainder of his life. He was buried in the town's East View Cemetery.

Kitchin married Dora Bennett Little of Wadesboro on 13 Oct. 1934, and they were the parents of Alvin Paul, Jr., and Henry Little.