William Scranton | |
|---|---|
_(cropped).jpg) Official portrait, 1962 | |
| 13thUnited States Ambassador to the United Nations | |
| In office March 15, 1976 – January 19, 1977 | |
| President | Gerald Ford |
| Preceded by | Daniel Patrick Moynihan |
| Succeeded by | Andrew Young |
| 38th Governor of Pennsylvania | |
| In office January 15, 1963 – January 17, 1967 | |
| Lieutenant | Raymond P. Shafer |
| Preceded by | David Lawrence |
| Succeeded by | Raymond P. Shafer |
| Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromPennsylvania's10th district | |
| In office January 3, 1961 – January 3, 1963 | |
| Preceded by | Stanley Prokop |
| Succeeded by | Joe McDade |
| Personal details | |
| Born | William Warren Scranton (1917-07-19)July 19, 1917 Madison, Connecticut, U.S. |
| Died | July 28, 2013(2013-07-28) (aged 96) Montecito, California, U.S. |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 4, includingWilliam III |
| Relatives | Scranton family |
| Education | Yale University (BA,LLB) |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance | United States |
| Branch/service |  United States Army Air Forces United States Air Force |
| Years of service | 1941–1945 |
| Rank |  Captain |
William Warren Scranton (July 19, 1917 – July 28, 2013) was an AmericanRepublican Party politician and diplomat.[1] Scranton served as the 38thgovernor of Pennsylvania from 1963 to 1967, and asUnited States Ambassador to the United Nations from 1976 to 1977.[2]
Born into the prominentScranton family,[3] William W. Scranton graduated fromYale Law School and served in theUnited States Army Air Corps duringWorld War II. After the war, he practiced law and became active in thePennsylvania Republican Party. He won election to theUnited States House of Representatives in1960 and gained a reputation as an outspoken moderate during his time in Congress. He won the Republican nomination inPennsylvania's 1962 gubernatorial election, defeatingDemocratRichardson Dilworth in the general election.[4]
As governor, Scranton presided over sweeping reforms to Pennsylvania's education system, including the creation of the state'scommunity college system.[5] Scranton entered the race for the1964 Republican presidential nomination after the collapse ofNelson Rockefeller's candidacy, butBarry Goldwater won the nomination. Scranton was term-limited out of office in 1967 but remained active in politics. He chaired thePresident's Commission on Campus Unrest, served as a member of the transition team for PresidentGerald Ford, and served as theUnited States Ambassador to the United Nations from 1976 to 1977. He also served on the boards of several high-profile corporations and was associated with theTrilateral Commission and theCouncil on Foreign Relations.
William Scranton was born on July 19, 1917, while the Scranton family was on vacation at a cottage inMadison, Connecticut.[6] He was the son ofWorthington Scranton, a wealthy Pennsylvania businessman who was the president of theScranton Gas and Water Company, andMarion Margery (Warren) Scranton, a member of theRepublican National Committee for over two decades.[7][8] Despite her own involvement in politics, his mother tried to dissuade him from entering politics because of his childhood struggles withasthma. She feared that the stress of campaigning would be detrimental to his frail health. She died just before her son's election to Congress in 1960.
Scranton family members,George W. Scranton and his brother Selden, were the founders and patriarchs of the city ofScranton, Pennsylvania. He was the grandnephew ofJoseph A. Scranton, a Representative from Pennsylvania. He was also a nephew by marriage of formerU.S. Supreme Court JusticeDavid Davis, a confidante of PresidentAbraham Lincoln. His maternal ancestors came to America on theMayflower.[9]
Scranton's father was the son ofWilliam Walker Scranton (1844–1916) and Katharine Maria Smith (1851–1935). His father was an industrialist, general manager of the Lackawanna Iron & Coal Company founded by George W. Scranton, among other interests in Scranton. Katherine Smith was the daughter ofWorthington Curtis Smith, who served as a United States Congressman fromVermont. Katherine M. Smith's uncle wasJ. Gregory Smith, who served asGovernor of Vermont. Her cousins includedEdward Curtis Smith, who also served as governor. Her grandfather,John Smith, also served as a United States Congressman from Vermont. Scranton's genealogical line runs from John Smith (great-great-grandfather) to Worthington C. Smith (great-grandfather) to Katherine Maria Smith Scranton (paternal grandmother) to Worthington Scranton (father) to Scranton.[10]
William Warren Scranton resided with his parents for many years at Marworth, an estate inDalton, Pennsylvania, that was located roughly eight miles north of Scranton.[11] Following the death of his parents, he inherited the estate. On October 9, 1976, Scranton and his wife hosted a "Day in the Country" party at Marworth. Among the guests in attendance were U.N. Secretary-GeneralKurt Waldheim and James Murray, British ambassador to the United Nations.[12] In 1981, ground was broken for a new alcohol and drug rehabilitation center to be operated by the Geisinger Medical Management Corporation on the grounds at Marworth.[13]
Scranton began his education at the Scranton Country Day School, which had been founded by his parents, completing his basic schooling at theFessenden School inNewton, Massachusetts,[14] and attended the prestigiousHotchkiss School inLakeville, Connecticut. Scranton graduated fromYale University in 1939. While at Yale, he was a member of theYale Political Union and theChi Psifraternity, where he became friends with another fraternity brother fromDelta Kappa Epsilon, futureU.S. PresidentGerald Ford, and of theBerzelius Secret Senior Society (pictured with his Berzelius Class of '39 as[15]
Scranton attendedYale Law School from 1939 to 1941, dropping out in advance ofWorld War II, enlisting in theUnited States Army Air Corps and serving as an Air Transport Command pilot during the war. Although he did not serve incombat, he was assigned to aircraft mobilization andpilot training duties, and was stationed on three different continents during his tour of duty, includingSouth America,Africa, andAsia. On July 6, 1942, he marriedMary Lowe Chamberlain (1918–2015). The couple had four children, a daughter and three sons, Susan, William Worthington, Joseph Curtis and Peter Kip. He was honorably discharged from the military as a captain, but was active in theU.S. Air Force Reserves for two decades thereafter. Following the war, he resumed his studies at Yale Law School. He graduated in 1946 and was admitted to the Pennsylvaniabar in August of that year.[14]
Scranton practiced law and then entered the business community after the war becoming successful in several firms in northeastern Pennsylvania. He joined the largest correspondence school in the United States,International Correspondence Schools in 1949 as its Vice President for legal affairs. He left that post in 1954, but later served on the board of directors, as had his father. He became active in Republican Party politics in the 1950s and came to the attention of PresidentDwight Eisenhower. In 1959, Eisenhower appointed Scranton as a special assistant toU.S. Secretary of StateJohn Foster Dulles and laterChristian Herter. Scranton served a little over a year before resigning to run for Congress.[14]
Scranton's name recognition and family connections helped him win a 17,000 vote victory overincumbentStanley Prokop in a largelyDemocratic district in 1960. Scranton represented Pennsylvania's 10th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1961 to 1963. Though a freshman Republican, he quickly gained a reputation as an outspokenmoderate and supported much of PresidentJohn F. Kennedy's social agendaincluding his legislative agenda for theCivil Rights Movement and thePeace Corps. Themedia quickly dubbed him a "Kennedy Republican."[14]
In 1962, thePennsylvania Republican Party, which had lost the two previous gubernatorial elections and seen the state'selectoral votes go to Kennedy in the1960 presidential election, became convinced that a moderate like Scranton, would have enough bipartisan appeal to revitalize the party. He ran for governor againstRichardson Dilworth, themayor of Philadelphia.[16] The ticket addedRaymond Shafer, who would succeed him as governor, as hisrunning mate. After one of the most acrimonious campaigns in state history, Scranton and Shafer won a huge victory in the election against their opponents by nearly half a million votes, out of just over 6.6 million cast.[14]
Economic conditions improved for Pennsylvania residents statewide under Scranton's leadership as "unemployment went from 7.5 percent to 3.6 percent," and the "average blue-collar weekly paycheck increased nearly $23 over the four years," according to thePittsburgh Post-Gazette. Restricted by state law to just one term as governor during his time in office, Scranton increased state government spending to a then-record $5.21 billion over his term, compared to $3.78 billion by his predecessor."[17] He also signed into law sweeping reforms in the state's education system, which created the state community college system, the state board of education and the state Higher Education Assistance Agency, and he established a program to promote the state in national and international markets and increase the attractiveness of the state's products and services.[18]
TheChester school protests inChester, Pennsylvania, in the spring of 1964 led byGeorge Raymond of theNational Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) andStanley Branche of theCommittee for Freedom Now (CFFN) against the de facto segregation of public schools prompted Scranton to implement the Pennsylvania Human Relations commission. All protests were discontinued while the commission held hearings during the summer of 1964. Scranton also supported the formation of the Greater Chester Movement, an umbrella organization intended to coordinate activities of groups working toward the betterment of Chester[19]
While he was governor, the largest manhunt in the history of Pennsylvania until then took place. On May 11, 1966,Peggy Ann Bradnick was kidnapped nearShade Gap.Pennsylvania State Police,FBI agents, local law enforcement, and civilian volunteers scoured the mountains aroundShade Gap andBurnt Cabins. On May 17, the kidnapper, William Diller Hollenbaugh, shot and killed FBI Agent Terry Ray Anderson. On May 18, Hollenbaugh shot and woundedCambria County Deputy Sheriff Francis Sharpe. There was a shootout at Rubeck's farm in Burnt Cabins and Hollenbaugh was killed; Peggy Ann Bradnick was rescued without serious injury.
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Although Scranton did not actively seek the 1964 Republican nomination forPresident of the United States in the beginning, a "Draft Scranton" movement quickly gathered momentum among moderate and liberal Republicans who saw him as an alternative to conservative frontrunner, SenatorBarry Goldwater, and other Republicans who feared that Goldwater's polarizing views would lead to defeat, after the campaign of Goldwater's liberal opponent, New York governorNelson Rockefeller, had lost steam. Early in the campaign, he announced that he would be willing to accept the nomination for Vice President. Scranton first declined to enter the race but later threw his hat into the ring on June 12, 1964. Scranton won the support of ten state delegations, but Goldwater went on to win the nomination on the first ballot.[20]Republican National Committee Chairman and US RepresentativeWilliam E. Miller ofNew York was nominated for Vice President.[14]
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Under the then-existing Pennsylvania law, Scranton was limited to a single term and could not run for reelection in1966. That same year, he announced that he would never again seek elected office. After his term in office, Scranton attended the Pennsylvania Constitutional Convention of 1967-1968 and helped write a newconstitution for the state, which included a provision allowing future governors to seek a second term. Following the1968 United States presidential election, President-electRichard Nixon asked Scranton to becomeSecretary of State, but he declined.[14] He did serve as a special envoy to theMiddle East but when he said the Nixon Administration should be "more evenhanded" in managing the problems of the Middle East, some in the AmericanJewish community regarded this asantisemitic and Nixon quickly distanced himself from the former governor. In accordance with his 1966 pledge never to seek elected office, he rebuffed a draft movement encouraging him to run for theU.S. Senate.
After theKent State shootings in 1970, Scranton was asked to chair thePresident's Commission on Campus Unrest to investigate this and other incidents of campus violence andprotest. The committee's conclusions came to be known as the "Scranton Report".[14]
Following Nixon's resignation from the Presidency in 1974, he was appointed as a transition team member for incoming PresidentGerald Ford.[14]
Scranton reentered the business world and served on the boards of several high-profile American corporations such asA&P,IBM,The New York Times,Pan American Airways, and theH.J. Heinz Company and was president of Northeastern National Bank and Trust Company. He was also associated with theTrilateral Commission, theCouncil on Foreign Relations, and was a trustee of Yale University, hisalma mater.[21]
In 1976, Scranton was chosen by President Ford to becomeUnited States Ambassador to the United Nations.[20] He was sworn-in in the Oval Office on March 15, 1976.[22] His measured approach todiplomacy and genuine interest inhuman rights earned him much respect in his short time in office. Some in the Republican Party pushed for Scranton to be named Ford's running mate for the 1976 presidential election, but Ford chose SenatorRobert Dole ofKansas instead. After his term as UN Ambassador, Scranton retired to his home inDalton, Pennsylvania.[21]
Scranton's son,William Scranton III, served asLieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania underRichard Thornburgh.[23] He ran unsuccessfully for governor in the 1986 election and was for a while considered a leading candidate for the Republican gubernatorial nomination in the 2006 election but ultimately dropped out of the race.
Scranton was elected to theAmerican Philosophical Society in 1997.[24]
Nine days after his 96th birthday, Scranton died on July 28, 2013, from acerebral hemorrhage at a retirement community inMontecito, California, where he lived with his wife.[25][26] His widow, Mary Scranton, the former First Lady of Pennsylvania, died from Alzheimer's disease on December 26, 2015, at the age of 97.[27]
"Many who serve as governor today are still measured against Bill Scranton's leadership - some 50 years later," said former state Republican National CommitteewomanElsie Hillman when she learned of Scranton's death.[28]
InJeff Greenfield's alternate history bookIf Kennedy Lived, Scranton is featured as SenatorBarry Goldwater's running mate in the1964 presidential election, instead ofWilliam E. Miller.
| U.S. House of Representatives | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromPennsylvania's 10th congressional district 1961–1963 | Succeeded by |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Republican nominee forGovernor of Pennsylvania 1962 | Succeeded by |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Governor of Pennsylvania 1963–1967 | Succeeded by |
| Non-profit organization positions | ||
| Preceded by | President of theNational Civic League 1970–1972 | Succeeded by |
| Diplomatic posts | ||
| Preceded by | United States Ambassador to the United Nations 1976–1977 | Succeeded by |
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Italics indicates acting | |||
| International | |
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| National | |
| People | |
| Other | |
