Bill Brock | |
|---|---|
.jpg) | |
| 18thUnited States Secretary of Labor | |
| In office April 29, 1985 – October 31, 1987 | |
| President | Ronald Reagan |
| Preceded by | Raymond J. Donovan |
| Succeeded by | Ann McLaughlin Korologos |
| 8thUnited States Trade Representative | |
| In office January 23, 1981 – April 29, 1985 | |
| President | Ronald Reagan |
| Preceded by | Reubin Askew |
| Succeeded by | Clayton Yeutter |
| 50thChair of the Republican National Committee | |
| In office January 14, 1977 – January 20, 1981 | |
| Preceded by | Mary Louise Smith |
| Succeeded by | Richard Richards |
| United States Senator fromTennessee | |
| In office January 3, 1971 – January 3, 1977 | |
| Preceded by | Albert Gore Sr. |
| Succeeded by | Jim Sasser |
| Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromTennessee's3rd district | |
| In office January 3, 1963 – January 3, 1971 | |
| Preceded by | James B. Frazier Jr. |
| Succeeded by | LaMar Baker |
| Personal details | |
| Born | William Emerson Brock III (1930-11-23)November 23, 1930 Chattanooga, Tennessee, U.S. |
| Died | March 25, 2021(2021-03-25) (aged 90) Fort Lauderdale, Florida, U.S. |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse(s) | |
| Relations | William E. Brock (grandfather) John Kruesi (great-grandfather) |
| Children | 4 |
| Education | Washington and Lee University (BA) |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance | United States |
| Branch/service | United States Navy |
| Years of service | 1953–1956 |
William Emerson "Bill" Brock III (November 23, 1930 – March 25, 2021) was an American politician fromTennessee who served in both chambers of theUnited States Congress as a member of theUnited States House of Representatives for four terms representingTennessee's 3rd congressional district from 1963 to 1971 and as a member of theUnited States Senate for one term from 1971 to 1977. He later served as the 50th Chair of theRepublican National Committee from 1977 to 1981 and in theCabinet of the United States from 1981 to 1987 underPresident of the United StatesRonald Reagan as the 8thUnited States Trade Representative from 1981 to 1985 and as the 18thUnited States Secretary of Labor from 1985 to 1987. He was the grandson ofWilliam E. Brock, a member of theDemocratic Party who served as a member of the U.S. Senate from the state of Tennessee from 1929 to 1931. He was a member of theRepublican Party.
Brock was born on November 23, 1930, inChattanooga,Tennessee, where his family owned a well-known candy company.[1] He was the son of William Emerson Brock Jr. and Myra (Kruesi).[2] Brock is named after his grandfather,William E. Brock, who also served in theUnited States Senate. His maternal great-grandfather wasJohn Kruesi, a machinist and closeThomas Edison associate who was originally fromAppenzell, a historic canton inSwitzerland.
Brock was a 1949 graduate ofThe McCallie School and a 1953 graduate ofWashington and Lee University inLexington, Virginia, in 1953 and subsequently served in theUnited States Navy until 1956. He then worked in his family's candy business. Brock had been reared as a Democrat, but became a Republican in the 1950s. In 1962, he was elected to Congress fromTennessee's 3rd congressional district, based in Chattanooga. The 3rd had long been the only Democratic outpost in traditionally heavily RepublicanEast Tennessee; indeed, Brock's victory ended 40 years of Democratic control in the district.
Underlining the district's conservative bent, Brock was re-elected in 1964 by over nine points amidLyndon B. Johnson's 44-state landslide. He was again re-elected in 1966 and 1968. During Brock's tenure in the House, he voted in favor of theCivil Rights Act of 1968[3] but voted against theCivil Rights Act of 1964 and theVoting Rights Act of 1965.[4][5]
Brock served four terms in the U.S. House of Representatives and then won the Republican nomination to face three-term incumbent U.S. SenatorAlbert Gore Sr. in1970, defeatingcountry music singerTex Ritter in theprimary election. Brock's campaign successfully made an issue of Gore's friendship with theKennedy family and Gore's voting record, which wasliberal bySouthern standards, and defeated him.[citation needed]
While in the Senate, Brock was a darling of the conservative movement but was less popular at home; his personality was somewhat distant by the standards of most politicians. As a freshman U.S. Senate member, he accomplished a great deal even as a minority Republican. He was the original author of the Congressional Budget Act (S. 3984, 92nd Congress and S. 40, 93rd Congress) and as ranking minority of Committee on Government Operations, Subcommittee on Budgeting, Management, and Expenditures led the crafting of the Congressional Budget Bill. He sponsored credit legislation (Title V - Equal Credit Opportunity, H.R. 11211, 93rd Congress), memorialized by aNational Archives and Records Administration exhibit, that provides woman's access to credit, including credit cards, by requiring financial institutions and other firms engaged in the extension of credit to make credit equally available to all and not to discriminate on the "basis of sex or marital status." He was co-chair of the Stevenson/Brock Committee (S. Res. 109, Temporary Select Committee to Study the Senate Committee System) with U.S. Senate memberAdlai Stevenson III fromIllinois, which sponsored establishment of the U.S. Senate Energy Committee as well as workload, scheduling, and staffing reforms and importantly reorganization of committee jurisdictions.
As a member of the Senate Finance Committee he promoted upgrading unemployment benefits, review of cash and non-cash benefits for low income, analysis of negative income tax experiments, transparency of markups, amendments to tax code, and introduced the first Senate tax indexing bill. Brock was a member of Paperwork Commission which according to Science's "Commission on Paperwork" editorial (September 23, 1977) issued 25 reports and 750 recommendations for cutting paperwork saving $3.5 million annually. He also drafted a 1975 resolution providing personal committee staffing for junior members (S. Res 60). In all, he worked closely with a broad coalition of Democrats and Republicans to bring those with widely ranging views together. That was appreciated by professional committee staff and members. His efforts contributed greatly to Congress's "Era of Cooperation" between 1971 and 1977 during which major reforms were accomplished including theClean Water Act,Endangered Species Act of 1973, Safe Drinking Water Act of 1974, andCongressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974, all of which passed without opposition votes in the Senate.
He was considered vulnerable in the1976 election cycle, and several prominent Democrats ran in the 1976 Democratic Senateprimary for the right to challenge him. The most prominent and best-known name, at least initially, was probably1970 gubernatorial nomineeJohn Jay Hooker; somewhat surprisingly to most observers, the winner of the primary wasJim Sasser, who had managed Gore Sr.'s 1970 reelection campaign.[citation needed]
Sasser exploited lingering resentment of theWatergate scandal, which had concluded only about two years earlier. However his most effective campaign strategy was to emphasize how the affluent Brock, through skillful use of the tax code by his accountants, had paid less than $2,000 inincome tax the previous year, an amount considerably less than that paid by many Tennesseans of far more modest means. Sasser was also aided by the popularity of theDemocratic presidential candidate,Jimmy Carter, in Tennessee; the formerGovernor of Georgia who served from 1971 to 1975 would win the state by a double-digit margin. Although Brock had started with a 30-point lead in polls over Sasser, Brock lost his re-election bid by a 52% to 47% margin.[6]
Prior to his Senate re-election run, Brock was among those considered to replaceNelson Rockefeller as PresidentGerald Ford's running mate in the1976 election.[7][8]
After leaving the Senate, Brock became the new chairman of theRepublican National Committee, a position he held from 1977 to 1981.
Upon the election ofRonald Reagan as U.S. president, Brock was appointedUnited States Trade Representative, a position he maintained until 1985, when he was madeUnited States Secretary of Labor.
Brock resigned his cabinet post in late 1987 to serve as the campaign manager forKansas U.S. Senate memberBob Dole's presidential campaign. Dole, the runner-up to Vice PresidentGeorge H. W. Bush, was seen as a micromanager, who needed a strong personality like Brock to guide his campaign.
Brock's late start, in the fall of 1987, left little time to help find an avenue to cut into Bush's substantial lead in national polls. Additionally, many viewed Brock as an imperious and inadequate manager, who badly misspent campaign funds largely on national headquarters staff and left Dole without adequate money for aSuper Tuesday media buy. Dole and Brock had a public falling-out, and Brock publicly fired two of Dole's favored consultants and ordering them off the campaign plane. Dole dropped out of the race in late March 1988 after he had lost key primaries in New Hampshire, the South, and Illinois.
Brock became a consultant in the Washington, D.C., area. By that point, he had become a legal resident ofMaryland. In 1994 he won the Republican U.S. Senate primary in Maryland over the future convictRuthann Aron but was soundly defeated 59% to 41% in thegeneral election by the Democratic incumbent,Paul Sarbanes.
In 1990, Brock was awarded theNew Zealand 1990 Commemoration Medal.[9] Brock was a member of the ReFormers Caucus ofIssue One.[10]
Brock married Laura Handly in 1957. They had four children and remained married until her death from cancer in 1985.[11] He later married Sandra Schubert.[12]
Brock died from pneumonia inFort Lauderdale, Florida, on March 25, 2021, at age 90.[12]
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| People | |
| Other | |
