Howard Wolpe | |
|---|---|
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| Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromMichigan's3rd district | |
| In office January 3, 1979 – January 3, 1993 | |
| Preceded by | Garry Brown |
| Succeeded by | Fred Upton (redistricting) |
| Member of theMichigan House of Representatives from the46th district | |
| In office January 1, 1973 – December 31, 1976 | |
| Preceded by | William V. Weber |
| Succeeded by | Mary Brown |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Howard Eliot Wolpe (1939-11-03)November 3, 1939 |
| Died | October 25, 2011(2011-10-25) (aged 71) |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse | Judy Wolpe (deceased 2006) |
| Education | Reed College (BA) Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MA,PhD) |
Howard Eliot Wolpe (November 3, 1939 – October 25, 2011) was an American politician who served as a seven-termU.S. Representative fromMichigan and Presidential Special Envoy to theAfrican Great Lakes Region in theClinton Administration, where he led the United States delegation to the Arusha and Lusaka peace talks, which aimed to end civil wars inBurundi and theDemocratic Republic of the Congo. He returned to theU.S. State Department as Special Advisor to the Secretary for Africa's Great Lakes Region. Previously, he had served as Director of the Africa Program at theWoodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, and of the Center's Project on Leadership and Building State Capacity. While at the Center, Wolpe directed post-conflict leadership training programs in Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo andLiberia.
A specialist in African politics for 10 of his 14 years in the Congress, Wolpe chaired the Subcommittee on Africa of theHouse Foreign Affairs Committee. As chair of the House Africa Subcommittee, Wolpe co-authored (with Rep.Ron Dellums and others) and managed legislation that imposed sanctions againstSouth Africa, by over-riding PresidentRonald Reagan's veto of that sanctions legislation (the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act of 1986). He also authored and managed the passage of theAfrican Famine Recovery and Development Act, -- a comprehensive rewrite in the 1980s of America's approach to development assistance in Africa that included the creation of theAfrican Development Fund.
Wolpe represented a district that stretched from his home inKalamazoo to the more Democratic portions ofLansing. In 1992, Wolpe's district was eliminated, and most of its territory, including his home, was merged with the district of three-termRepublicanFred Upton. Although Kalamazoo was the largest city in the reconfigured district, it was geographically more Upton's district than Wolpe's, prompting Wolpe to retire.
Prior to entering the U.S. Congress, Wolpe served in theMichigan House of Representatives and as a member of the Kalamazoo City Commission. In 1994, he won the Democratic nomination for Governor of Michigan. He initially asked formerFirst Lady of MichiganHelen Milliken to be hisrunning mate, but Milliken declined his offer.[1] Wolpe then selected one of his former rivals in the Democratic primary,State SenatorDebbie Stabenow (later a U.S. Senator), as his nominee for lieutenant governor. The Wolpe-Stabenow ticket lost the general election in a landslide to incumbent GovernorJohn Engler and Lieutenant GovernorConnie Binsfeld.
Wolpe taught atWestern Michigan University (Political Science Department),Michigan State University where he co-published a volume on modernization in Nigeria,[2] and theUniversity of Michigan (Institute of Public Policy Studies), and served as a visiting fellow in the Foreign Policy Studies Program of the Brookings Institution, as a Woodrow Wilson Center Public Policy Scholar, and as a consultant to the World Bank and to theForeign Service Institute of theU.S. State Department.
Wolpe received his B.A. degree fromReed College, and his Ph.D. from theMassachusetts Institute of Technology. He was a member of the boards of directors of theNational Endowment for Democracy (NED),Africare,Pathfinders, International and of the Advisory Board ofCoexistence International. He co-directed (with Ambassador David C. Miller, Jr.) the Ninetieth American Assembly on "Africa and U.S. National Interests" held in March 1997. He wrote extensively on Africa, American foreign policy, and the management of ethnic and racial conflict.
Howard Wolpe was married to Judy Wolpe until her death in 2006. He died on October 25, 2011, at his home in Saugatuck, Michigan.[3] Memorial services were held in Kalamazoo, Michigan in December 2011 and in Washington, D.C., in January 2012.
| U.S. House of Representatives | ||
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| Preceded by | Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromMichigan's 3rd congressional district 1979–1993 | Succeeded by |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Democratic nominee forGovernor of Michigan 1994 | Succeeded by |
| International | |
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| National | |
| People | |
| Other | |
