Milton Shapp | |
|---|---|
.png) Shapp in 1976 | |
| 40thGovernor of Pennsylvania | |
| In office January 19, 1971 – January 16, 1979 | |
| Lieutenant | Ernest Kline |
| Preceded by | Raymond P. Shafer |
| Succeeded by | Dick Thornburgh |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Milton Jerrold Shapiro (1912-06-25)June 25, 1912 |
| Died | November 24, 1994(1994-11-24) (aged 82) Merion, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouses | |
| Children | 3 |
| Education | Case Western Reserve University (BS) |
| Military service | |
| Branch/service | United States Army |
| Years of service | 1942–1946 |
| Rank | Captain |
| Unit | Army Signal Corps |
| Battles/wars | World War II |
Milton Jerrold Shapp (bornMilton Jerrold Shapiro; June 25, 1912 – November 24, 1994) was an American businessman and politician who served as the 40thgovernor of Pennsylvania from 1971 to 1979 and the first Jewish governor of Pennsylvania. He was also the first governor of Pennsylvania to be eligible for, and re-elected to, consecutive four-year terms per the 1968Pennsylvania Constitution.
Shapp was bornMilton Jerrold Shapiro inCleveland, Ohio, to Aaron Shapiro, a businessman and staunchRepublican, and Eva (née Smelsey) Shapiro, a Democrat and outspokensuffragette. His family wasJewish,[1] and all of his grandparents had emigrated fromEastern Europe. He attended the Case School of Applied Science. (In 1948, the Case School of Applied Science was renamed the Case Institute of Technology and in 1967 it federated with Western Reserve University to formCase Western Reserve University.) He graduated in 1933 with a degree inelectrical engineering. Unfortunately, the effects of theGreat Depression ravaged America, and Shapp, unable to find work in the engineering field, worked as a coal truck driver. In 1936, he took a job selling electronic parts and moved to Pennsylvania. It was during this time that he changed his name from Shapiro to Shapp to avoid prejudice, even though he continued to identify openly as being Jewish.[citation needed]
DuringWorld War II, Shapp served as an officer in theU.S. ArmySignal Corps inNorth Africa andEurope. After World War II, he moved toPhiladelphia and foundedJerrold Electronics Corporation, a pioneer in thecable television industry, using a $500 loan subsidized by theG.I. Bill. Jerrold became one of America's first providers of coaxial cable TV systems in 1948.Jerrold Electronics became a major player in the television industry, and Shapp himself amassed amultimillion-dollar fortune. Shapp sold his interest inJerrold Electronics in 1967 to theGeneral Instrument Company to concentrate on politics. The Jerrold name, however, continued to survive on cable TV reception equipment into the 1990s when it became obsolete when General Instrument went out of business in 1997.
Shapp entered the world of politics in1960 by campaigning forJohn F. Kennedy forpresident of the United States. Shapp is credited with promoting the idea that eventually led to the creation of the Peace Corps.[1] After Kennedy was elected president, Shapp served as an advisor to thePeace Corps[2] as well as consultant to theSecretary of Commerce.
In1966, he sought the Democratic nomination forgovernor of Pennsylvania. The party in Pennsylvania was deeply divided that year and the party organization endorsedRobert P. Casey for the office. Shapp's large personal fortune allowed him to run an independent campaign, and he capitalized on an anti-establishment mood among Democrats and won the Democratic primary by about 50,000 votes with a slogan portraying him as "The Man Against The Machine".[3][4] Shapp went on to lose the 1966 general election for governor by 250,000 votes to Republican Raymond Shafer.[5]
At the time, Shapp was heavily involved in unsuccessfully trying to stop themerger of thePennsylvania Railroad with theNew York Central. He invested millions of dollars of his own money into the effort, traveling throughout Pennsylvania to convince local officials to oppose the merger. He pushed the issue into the federal courts and testified against the proposed merger in front of theInterstate Commerce Commission. The issue was prominent during his first run for governor in 1966. In the process, he made several enemies.Stuart T. Saunders, president of the Pennsylvania Railroad, opposed Shapp at every turn. Friendly with theLyndon Johnson administration, Saunders influenced Washington Democrats to sabotage the Shapp campaign.[citation needed]
Walter Annenberg, owner and publisher ofThe Philadelphia Inquirer and major shareholder of the Pennsylvania Railroad, used the pages ofThe Inquirer to cast doubt on Shapp's candidacy. The opposition from Annenberg-owned media and the Democratic political establishment helped contribute to Shapp's narrow loss that year toRepublicanRaymond P. Shafer.[6]
As the1970 election approached, Governor Shafer was term-limited under existing Pennsylvania law, which prohibited self-succession by him, and could neither run for re-election nor take advantage of the amended Commonwealth Constitution ratified in 1968. Furthermore, a fiscal crisis during his term plunged his popularity to a low point, hurting Republican chances of retaining the office. Shapp again sought the Democratic nomination and again defeated Robert P. Casey to win the Democratic nomination. Of his nemeses from the last election, Walter Annenberg had sold theInquirer toKnight Newspapers, Inc. a year earlier prior to his appointment asambassador to the United Kingdom, while Stuart Saunders had vanished from the political scene as Penn Central entered bankruptcy in 1970.[7] This time Shapp won the election to becomegovernor of Pennsylvania over RepublicanRaymond J. Broderick, the then incumbentlieutenant governor and later a well-respected federal judge, by over 500,000 votes.
During Shapp's time in office, he solved a financial crisis by instituting Pennsylvania's flat, no-deductions income tax. He also signed into law the bill creating thePennsylvania Lottery and instituted major reforms for thePennsylvania Turnpike. The Governor oversaw new consumer rights legislation, welfare reform, and insurance reform including the controversial decision to enactno-fault insurance legislation in the state. In the wake of theWatergate crisis, he established a sweepingSunshine Law for the state, the most comprehensive of any state at the time. He also faced a massive recovery effort afterHurricane Agnes caused widespreadflooding in the state causing the death of 48 Pennsylvanians. The flooding was so bad and so rapid that Governor Shapp and his wife, Muriel, had to be rescued from the gubernatorial mansion inHarrisburg by boat as flood waters from theSusquehanna River inundated the building.[8][9][10]
During the Shafer gubernatorial administration, the Commonwealth Constitution had been amended to change the permitted lengths of governors' administrations from one term to the present-day maximum of two consecutive terms at a time, with at least one term required between such gubernatorial administrations.
As Shapp was not term-limited, he successfully sought re-election as governor, winning by a large majority over his Republican opponent,Drew Lewis, in theelection of 1974.[11]
 | |
| Campaign | U.S. presidential election, 1976 |
|---|---|
| Candidate | Milton Shapp 40th Governor of Pennsylvania(1971–1979) |
| Affiliation | Democratic Party |
| Status | Withdrawn (lost primary) |
| Key people | Norval Reece(Manager) |
| Receipts | US$913,755.57[12] |
Governor Milton Shapp set his sights on theWhite House andran unsuccessfully for the1976 Democratic nomination for president, but failed to carry even his home state of Pennsylvania in the primary elections, and dropped out after an 89-day campaign.[1][13] After that defeat, he settled into a lame-duck term as governor, enacting no further significant reforms.
In his last years, Shapp suffered fromAlzheimer's disease, and died from complications of it on November 24, 1994, at the age of 82. He is buried inHar Jehuda Cemetery. After his death, theMotorola corporation established the Milton Jerrold Shapp Memorial Scholarship Fund, an engineering scholarship, in Shapp's honor. Motorola was the successor corporation toGeneral Instrument, the company that had acquired Shapp's firm in 1967.
| Party political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Democratic nominee forGovernor of Pennsylvania 1966,1970,1974 | Succeeded by |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Governor of Pennsylvania 1971–1979 | Succeeded by |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
