Edouard Izac

Edouard Victor Michel Izac (December 18, 1891 – January 18, 1990) was a lieutenant in the United States Navy during World War I and a Medal of Honor recipient. From 1937 to 1947, he served five terms as a Representative from California.

Born in Cresco, Iowa, Izac grew up in a rural setting, graduating from United States Naval Academy in 1915. He was posted to the troop transport USS President Lincoln in 1918 when that ship was sunk by German submarine U-90. Taken as a prisoner of war, and not letting his captors know that he spoke German, Izac gathered intelligence on the submarine and its crew before being transferred to prison camps in Germany, from where he escaped in October 1918.

Izac subsequently moved to San Diego and was elected as a Democrat to California's 20th congressional district, where he chaired the House Naval Affairs Committee and had oversight of Naval activities in the Pacific during World War II. Despite initially being hesitant to enter the war and remaining cautious to expanded U.S. involvement, experiences touring Nazi concentration camps in 1945 ultimately hardened his resolve. Nonetheless, he lost his bid for a sixth term in Congress in 1946. Izac spent much of the rest of his life writing and farming in the Washington D.C. area and was the last living Medal of Honor recipient of World War I when he died in 1990 at 98.