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John Chafee | |
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| Chair of theSenate Environment Committee | |
| In office January 4, 1995 – October 24, 1999 | |
| Preceded by | Max Baucus |
| Succeeded by | Bob Smith |
| United States Senator fromRhode Island | |
| In office December 29, 1976 – October 24, 1999 | |
| Preceded by | John Pastore |
| Succeeded by | Lincoln Chafee |
| 60thUnited States Secretary of the Navy | |
| In office January 31, 1969 – May 4, 1972 | |
| President | Richard Nixon |
| Preceded by | Paul Ignatius |
| Succeeded by | John Warner |
| 66thGovernor of Rhode Island | |
| In office January 1, 1963 – January 7, 1969 | |
| Lieutenant | Edward P. Gallogly Giovanni Folcarelli Joseph O'Donnell |
| Preceded by | John Notte |
| Succeeded by | Frank Licht |
| Member of theRhode Island House of Representatives from theWarwick's 3rd district | |
| In office January 1957 – January 1963 | |
| Preceded by | Herbert B. Carkin |
| Succeeded by | Carmine R. DiPetrillo |
| Personal details | |
| Born | John Lester Hubbard Chafee (1922-10-22)October 22, 1922 Providence, Rhode Island, U.S. |
| Died | October 24, 1999(1999-10-24) (aged 77) Bethesda, Maryland, U.S. |
| Party | Republican |
| Spouse | Virginia Coates |
| Children | 6, includingLincoln |
| Education | Yale University (BA) Harvard University (LLB) |
| Awards | Presidential Medal of Freedom |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |  United States |
| Branch/service |  United States Marine Corps |
| Years of service | 1942–1945 1951–1953 |
| Rank | Captain |
| Battles/wars | |
John Lester Hubbard Chafee (/ˈtʃeɪfiː/CHAY-fee; October 22, 1922 – October 24, 1999) was an American politician and officer in theUnited States Marine Corps. A member of theRepublican Party, he served as the 66thgovernor of Rhode Island, as thesecretary of the Navy, and as aUnited States senator.
Chafee was born inProvidence, Rhode Island, to a politically active family. He was the son of Janet Melissa (née Hunter) and John Sharpe Chafee.[1] His great-grandfather,Henry Lippitt, wasgovernor of Rhode Island (1875–1877), and among his great-uncles were a Rhode Island governor,Charles Warren Lippitt, and United States SenatorHenry Frederick Lippitt. His uncle,Zechariah Chafee, was aHarvard law professor, and a notablecivil libertarian. His cousin wasFrederick Lippitt, former Minority Leader in theRhode Island House of Representatives. He had two daughters and four sons, one of whom is formerRhode Island Governor and former United States SenatorLincoln Chafee. One of his daughters, Tribbie, died following an accident at a horse show in October 1968 at the age of 14. His eldest child, John H. Chafee, is a UCLA alumnus.
John Chafee graduated from acoeducational primary school, Providence'sGordon School, in 1931 and then attendedProvidence Country Day School. In 1940, he graduated fromDeerfield Academy inMassachusetts.[2] Chafee was anEpiscopalian.[3]
Chafee was in his third year as an undergraduate atYale University whenthe Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.[4] He interrupted his undergraduate studies and enlisted in theMarine Corps,[5] spending his 20th birthday fighting on the island ofGuadalcanal from August 8 until November 1942, when theFirst Marine Division was relieved. After receiving his commission as asecond lieutenant, he fought in theBattle of Okinawa in the spring of 1945.
Following the war, he received degrees fromYale University in 1947 andHarvard Law School in 1950. At Yale, he was a member of theDelta Kappa Epsilon (Phi chapter) andSkull and Bones fraternities. In 1951, he was recalled to active service to be a Marine rifle company commander during theKorean War with Dog Company,2nd Battalion, 7th Marines.[6]
AuthorJames Brady, in his memoir of the Korean War and serving as a Marine under Chafee, writes that "[n]owhere, at any time, did John Chafee serve more nobly than he did as a Marine officer commanding a rifle company in the mountains of North Korea," and that "[h]e was the only truly great man I've yet met in my life..."[7]
Chafee's military awards include three awards of thePresidential Unit Citation, theAsiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal, theWorld War II Victory Medal, theKorean Service Medal and theUnited Nations Korea Medal.
Chafee became active in behind-the-scenes Rhode Island politics by helping elect amayor ofProvidence in the early 1950s. He successfully ran for a seat in theRhode Island House of Representatives in 1956 and later became the minority leader. He was re-elected in 1958 and 1960, the latter a year when manyRepublicans were swept from office in his state.
Chafee was elected governor in1962, defeating Democratic incumbentJohn A. Notte Jr. The election was notable for being one of the narrowest in Rhode Island history, Chafee received 50.06% of the vote to Notte's 49.94%, winning by a margin of just 398 votes. However, Chafee quickly became popular with both Rhode Island's Republicans and Democrats, allowing him to win re-election by margins of almost 2-to-1 in1964 and1966. The 1964 victory made Chafee one of the few bright spots in a disastrous year for Republicans nationally; in the concurrentpresidential election,Lyndon Johnson carried the state with an unheard-of 81 percent of the vote.
As governor, Chafee helped create the state's public transportation administration as well as what was known as the Green Acres program, a conservation effort. In 1968, he served as chair of theRepublican Governors Association. He served as governor until 1969, when he was surprisingly defeated by underdogDemocratFrank Licht. Reasons ascribed for the defeat include the fact that, after running three times on a strong anti-income tax platform, Chafee now said that such a tax was imperative (indeed his anti-tax opponent went on to champion one in 1971);[8] and that he stopped campaigning after his daughter was killed.[9]
He was appointedSecretary of the Navy in 1969 byPresidentRichard Nixon. Chafee's tenure as secretary was marked by a willingness to make bold decisions and stand by them. Emblematic of this was his decision to elevate AdmiralElmo Zumwalt asChief of Naval Operations over 33 more senior officers, and his judicious handling of theUSSPueblo situation, in whichNorth Korean forces, during the previous administration, had boarded and captured a navy intelligence ship. His action as Secretary of the Navy that is most clearly remembered is his disapproval of the recommendation tocourt martialCommanderLloyd Bucher, the commanding officer of thePueblo, once the release of the crew had been secured. Because it was clear that the guilt clearly rested on the North Koreans and not Bucher or the sailors on thePueblo, Chafee stated that "Bucher and his men have suffered enough", and that a court martial would only add insult to injury. He served as Secretary of the Navy until 1972, when he resigned to run for theU.S. Senate.
After an unsuccessful candidacy for the Senate in 1972 againstDemocratic incumbentClaiborne Pell, Chafee was elected to that body in1976 to succeed retiring DemocratJohn Pastore. He was the first Republican to win a Rhode Island Senate election since1930.[10][11] He joined theSenate Committee on Environment and Public Works in 1977 and made environmental matters a chief concern, often breaking with his party to the delight of conservation groups. He chaired that committee during his last term in office, from 1995 to 1999. As a result of his work, Chafee was a recipient of the Lady Bird Johnson Environmental Award.
Among the bills Chafee fostered while in the minority was theClean Water Act of 1986, and the 1990 amendments to theClean Air Act. He also was an architect of the 1980Superfund program to clean uphazardous waste sites as well as theOil Pollution Act of 1990. Chafee authored theCoastal Barrier Resources Act of 1982, establishing the Coastal Barrier Resources System (CBRS). Upon Chafee's death in 1999, the CBRS was renamed the John H. Chafee Coastal Barrier Resources System.
Like most Republicans from New England, Chafee's voting record was moderate to liberal. He waspro-choice on abortion and supported theNorth American Free Trade Agreement. He took a moderate stance on taxes and government assistance to the needy. He opposed the death penalty, school prayer, and the ban on homosexuals serving in the military. Chafee was one of the few Republicans to support strict gun control laws. He sponsored a bill that, if passed, would have prohibited the "manufacture, importation, exportation, sale, purchase, transfer, receipt, possession, or transportation of handguns and hand ammunition." Chafee voted in favor of thebill establishingMartin Luther King Jr. Day as afederal holiday and theCivil Rights Restoration Act of 1987 (as well as to overridePresident Reagan's veto).[12][13][14] Chafee voted in favor of the nomination ofWilliam Rehnquist asChief Justice of the United States and thenomination of Clarence Thomas to theU.S. Supreme Court,[15] but voted against thenomination of Robert Bork.
During the late 1980s and 1990s, Senator Chafee became an advocate for improving the U.S. health care system. He supported legislation to expandMedicaid coverage for low-income children and pregnant women, sponsored legislation to expand the availability of home and community-based services for persons with disabilities, and worked to enact legislation to establish Federally Qualified Health Centers. In 1992, he was appointed chairman of the Senate Republican Task Force on Health, and he worked to develop a consensus among Republicans on health care. In 1993, he joined with Democratic Louisiana SenatorJohn Breaux to form the Senate Mainstream Coalition, a coalition of six Democratic and six Republican senators seeking bipartisan consensus on health reform. He sponsored legislation that increased funds to states to assist youths in making the transition from foster care to independent living; recognized the need for special help for youths ages 18 to 21 who have left foster care; offered states greater flexibility in designing their independent living programs; and, established accountability for states in implementing independent living programs. As a testimonial to the late Senator Chafee, the program is now entitled theJohn H. Chafee Foster Care Independence Program.
Chafee sat on theU.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and was chairman of theSenate Finance Committee'sSubcommittee on Health Care, but his biggest imprint was on environmental concerns. He also served in his party's leadership, chairing theSenate Republican Conference from 1985 to 1990.
On February 12, 1999, Chafee voted against both articles ofimpeachment against PresidentBill Clinton.
On March 15, 1999, Chafee announced he would not seek re-election in2000.[16]
In October 1999, less than two weeks before his death, Chafee was one of four Senate Republicans to vote in favor of theComprehensive Test Ban Treaty. The treaty was designed to ban underground nuclear testing and was the first major international security pact to be defeated in the Senate since theTreaty of Versailles.[17][18] His last major act was authoring and sponsoring the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st century, which authorized funding for transportation programs for the next six years.[19][20]
On October 24, 1999, around seven months after Chafee announced his retirement from the Senate, he died fromheart failure at theNational Naval Medical Center inBethesda, Maryland, two days after his 77th birthday. President Clinton eulogized him, saying, "He embodied the decent center. For him, civility was not simply a matter of personal manners. He believed it was essential to the preservation of our democratic system."[21] Chafee was succeeded in the Senate by his son,Lincoln, who went on to win a full term in his own right in2000 and later served asGovernor of Rhode Island.
TheUSSChafee (DDG-90), theJohn H. Chafee Blackstone River Valley National Heritage Corridor and theJohn H. Chafee National Wildlife Refuge were named in his honor.
Bryant University in Smithfield, Rhode Island named its World Trade Center on campus after John H. Chafee for his continuing support for global trade and his association with the university.
The Chafee Social Science Center at theUniversity of Rhode Island is named in his honor. It is the tallest building in southern Rhode Island.
TheFoster Care Independence Act of 1999, passed on November 23, 1999, after his death, is known as the John H. Chafee Foster Care Independence Program. The programs are administered at the state level by Social Service Agencies. One such program, in example, is theNorth Carolina Links program
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