Harris Wofford | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Wofford as a U.S. Senator | |
| Chief Executive Officer of theCorporation for National and Community Service | |
| In office 1995–2001 | |
| Appointed by | Bill Clinton |
| Preceded by | Eli J. Segal |
| Succeeded by | Leslie Lenkowsky |
| United States Senator fromPennsylvania | |
| In office May 8, 1991 – January 3, 1995 | |
| Preceded by | John Heinz |
| Succeeded by | Rick Santorum |
| Pennsylvania Secretary of Labor and Industry | |
| In office March 23, 1987 – May 8, 1991 | |
| Governor | Bob Casey Sr. |
| Preceded by | James Knepper |
| Succeeded by | Tom Foley |
| Chair of thePennsylvania Democratic Party | |
| In office June 28, 1986 – December 6, 1986 | |
| Preceded by | Edward Mezvinsky |
| Succeeded by | Larry Yatch |
| 5th President ofBryn Mawr College | |
| In office 1970–1978 | |
| Preceded by | Katharine Elizabeth McBride |
| Succeeded by | Mary Patterson McPherson |
| President of theState University of New York at Old Westbury | |
| In office 1966–1970 | |
| Preceded by | position established |
| Succeeded by | John D. Maguire |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Harris Llewellyn Wofford Jr. (1926-04-09)April 9, 1926 New York City, U.S. |
| Died | January 21, 2019(2019-01-21) (aged 92) Washington, D.C., U.S. |
| Party | Democratic |
| Spouses | |
| Children | 3 |
| Education | University of Chicago (BA) Yale University (LLB) |
| Signature |  |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |  United States |
| Branch/service |  United States Army |
| Unit | United States Army Air Forces |
| Battles/wars | World War II |
Harris Llewellyn Wofford Jr.[1] (April 9, 1926 – January 21, 2019) was an American attorney,civil rights activist, andDemocratic Party politician who representedPennsylvania in theUnited States Senate from 1991 to 1995.[2] A noted advocate of national service and volunteering, Wofford was also the fifth president ofBryn Mawr College from 1970 to 1978, served as chairman of thePennsylvania Democratic Party in 1986, served asPennsylvania Secretary of Labor and Industry in the cabinet of GovernorBob Casey Sr. from 1987 to 1991, and was a surrogate forBarack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign. He introduced Obama in Philadelphia at theNational Constitution Center before Obama's speech on race in America, "A More Perfect Union."
Wofford was born in 1926 inManhattan,New York City, the son of Estelle Allison (née Gardner) and Harris Llewellyn Wofford.[3] He was born to a wealthy and prominent Southern family.[4]
At age 11 he accompanied his widowed grandmother on a six-month world tour. They spent Christmas Eve inBethlehem, visitedShanghai shortly after theImperial Japanese Armycaptured it, spent time in India where Wofford became "fascinated" byMahatma Gandhi and visited Rome, where they sawBenito Mussolini announce Italy's withdrawal from theLeague of Nations and a subsequent fascist parade.[4] While attendingScarsdale High School,[5] he was inspired byClarence Streit's plea for aworld government to found theStudent Federalists.[6] By the time he was 18, the organization had grown so large thatNewsweek predicted he would become president.[4]
He served in theUnited States Army Air Forces during theSecond World War[4] and was a 1948 graduate of theUniversity of Chicago.[4] After eight months on a fellowship in India, conducting a study of the recently assassinated Gandhi, he and his wife Clare returned to America. He subsequently enrolled at historically blackHoward Law School, the first white male student to do so.[7] After one year, he concluded his studies atYale Law School, where he received his law degree in June 1954.[8] He began his public service career as a legal assistant for Rev.Theodore M. Hesburgh on theUnited States Commission on Civil Rights, serving from 1957 to 1959. In 1959, he became a law professor atUniversity of Notre Dame. He was an early supporter of theCivil Rights Movement in the South in the 1950s, accompanying Indian activistRam Manohar Lohia on a tour of the South in 1951[4] and becoming a friend and unofficial advisor toMartin Luther King Jr.[4]
Wofford first metJohn F. Kennedy in 1947 at a party atClare Boothe Luce's Connecticut home.[4] Wofford's political career began in 1960 when Kennedy asked him to join his presidential campaign and work withSargent Shriver on winning over the "Negro vote".[4]
When King was imprisoned shortly before the election, Wofford and Shriver persuaded Kennedy to call King's wife,Coretta Scott King, who faced the specter of her husband sentenced to hard labor in a Georgia prison for a minor traffic violation while she was in an advanced stage of pregnancy. This promptedMartin Luther King Sr. to switch his endorsement fromRichard Nixon to Kennedy[4] without the knowledge ofTed Sorensen,Ted Kennedy andKenneth O'Donnell.[4][9] Following the phone call, Wofford and other Kennedy aides assembled a pamphlet that referenced the call, printed on blue paper and known as the "blue bomb"; some 2 million copies were circulated, mostly through African American churches—"below the registry of the news and white culture. It had enormous influence among black voters."[10][11]
In 1961, Kennedy appointed him as a Special Assistant to the President for Civil Rights. In the White House, he served as chairman of the Subcabinet Group on Civil Rights. Wofford was instrumental in the formation of thePeace Corps and served as the Peace Corps' special representative toAfrica and director of operations inEthiopia.[4] He was appointed associate director of the Peace Corps in 1964 and held that position until 1966. He also participated in theSelma to Montgomery marches in 1965.[4] Wofford's bookOf Kennedys and Kings: Making Sense of the Sixties details his years in the civil rights movement and the creation of the Peace Corps.[12][13]
In 1966, Wofford left politics to become president of theState University of New York at Old Westbury.[4] At the1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago, Wofford risked his career by allowing himself to be arrested in protest of police brutality.[4] In 1970, he became president ofBryn Mawr College inPennsylvania, holding that post until 1978.[4]
In 1978, Wofford joined the law firm ofSchnader Harrison Segal & Lewis LLP.[14]
After spending seven years in private law practice inPhiladelphia, Wofford served as the Chairman of thePennsylvania Democratic Party from June to December 1986.[15][16] In March 1987, he was appointed byPennsylvania GovernorBob Casey Sr. as the state's Secretary of Labor and Industry.[17]
On April 4, 1991, Pennsylvania's senior U.S. Senator,H. John Heinz III, died when his small plane collided with a helicopter, leaving his seat in the U.S. Senate open. By law, the Pennsylvania governor was required to appoint a replacement until a special election could be held for the seat. After considering several potential candidates, includingChrysler president andAllentown nativeLee Iacocca, who turned down the job, Governor Casey appointed Wofford to the seat on May 8, 1991.[4] He had previously considered running for office, but never thought the opportunity was quite right.[4] He thus became the first Democrat to represent Pennsylvania in the Senate sinceJoe Clark left office in 1969.[18]
In thespecial election, held in November 1991, Wofford facedDick Thornburgh, the former Pennsylvania Governor andU.S. Attorney General under PresidentsRonald Reagan andGeorge H. W. Bush. Candidates for this special election were chosen by the party committees because the vacancy had happened too late to set up a primary. Wofford began the campaign so far behind in the polls that most pundits assumed he had no chance of winning. Indeed, at one point his own internal polls showed him losing by over 40 points. His eventual upset victory over the former governor by ten percentage points surprised many, and was later described as a turning point for the political prospects of President George H. W. Bush.[4][19]
Wofford's campaign was run byPaul Begala andJames Carville, and their dramatic success brought them to national attention.[4] Wofford's campaign pivoted on a promise of universal healthcare, and according to political scientist Jacob Hacker, helped propel healthcare reform into national discussion.[20] Themes such as theeconomy andhealth care would also be crucial toBill Clinton's1992 presidential election victory.[4] In 2015, conservative commentatorRush Limbaugh complained of Wofford, "Health care as a right—you know who started that line of thinking? A guy named Harris Wofford, who was a senator from Pennsylvania."[21]
Although Clinton ultimately choseAl Gore, Wofford wasa finalist for the vice presidential nomination.[22]
After the failure of presidentBill Clinton'sHealthcare proposal, to which Wofford was tied to having been one of the executive's strongest allies on the issue, following this Wofford focused his attacks on his opponentRepublicanRep.Rick Santorum, thirty-two years his junior. Santorum in turn ran a grassroots campaign and appeal to socially conservative unions.[23] Wofford would end up narrowly losing his seat to Santorum by 87,210 votes.[24] The election was part of that year'sRepublican Revolution, in which many Democrats were ousted from both houses of theUnited States Congress.[24] Wofford and Tennessee'sJim Sasser were the only incumbent Senators to lose re-election in the 1994 cycle.[1]
_(cropped).jpg)
From 1995 to 2001, Wofford served as chief executive officer of theCorporation for National and Community Service, the federal agency that runsAmeriCorps and other domestic volunteer programs.[4]
In 2005, he metBarack Obama. The two became friends and when Obama made his speech on race in America, "A More Perfect Union", Wofford introduced him.[4]
On January 4, 2007, Wofford was present for the swearing-in of SenatorBob Casey Jr., who defeated Santorum in his bid for a third term,[25] and on January 3, 2013, Wofford again accompanied Casey to his swearing-in for a second term on the floor of the Senate.[26]
From 2001, Wofford served on the boards of several charities and service organizations, includingAmerica's Promise,Youth Service America and thePoints of Light Foundation. He was a trustee to the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Non-Violent Social Change.[27] Between 2007 and 2009, Wofford was the national spokesperson for Experience Wave, a national campaign that sought to advance state and federal policies to make it easier for mid-life and older adults to stay engaged in work and community life.[28]
Wofford was a board member ofMalaria No More, a New York-based nonprofit that was launched at the 2006White House Summit with the goal of ending all deaths caused by malaria. He served on the Board of Selectors ofJefferson Awards for Public Service.[29] He served as a senior fellow at theCase Foundation in Washington, D.C.[18][30]
From 2012 to 2015, Wofford served as a senior advisor to theFranklin Project, a policy program of theAspen Institute that sought to make a year of service a common opportunity and expectation for young Americans.[31]
In 2014,The New Republic featured Wofford in its 100th Anniversary issue, in a profile titled, "The Man Who Was Everywhere".[32]
Wofford was raised anEpiscopalian, and converted to Catholicism in the 1980s.[33]
In 1948, Wofford married Clare Lindgren. The Woffords later had three children. In January 1996, Clare Wofford died of acute leukemia at age 69.[34][35]
In April 2016 at the age of 90, Wofford announced that he would marry interior designer Matthew Charlton, a man 50 years his junior and his companion since 2001.[36][37] That month, he published an opinion piece inThe New York Times entitled "Finding Love Again, This Time With a Man."[38] Wofford and Charlton married that year.[24][39][40]
On January 21, 2019, Wofford died at age 92 inWashington, D.C., of complications from a fall.[11] Approximately 1,000 people attended his memorial service held on March 3, 2019 in Cramton Auditorium atHoward University. The Howard University Choir performed and speakers included his husband, his brother, his children,Wayne A.I. Frederick,Tom Wolf,Timothy Shriver,Bob Casey Jr.,Bill Clinton (via video),Paul Begala, Ghebre Selassie Mehreteab, andPeter Yarrow (via video), among others.[41]
| Academic offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | President ofBryn Mawr College 1970–1978 | Succeeded by |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Chair of thePennsylvania Democratic Party 1986–1986 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Democratic nominee forU.S. Senator fromPennsylvania (Class 1) 1991,1994 | Succeeded by |
| Government offices | ||
| Preceded by | Pennsylvania Secretary of Labor and Industry 1987–1991 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | CEO of theCorporation for National and Community Service 1995–2001 | Succeeded by |
| U.S. Senate | ||
| Preceded by | United States Senator (Class 1) from Pennsylvania 1991–1995 Served alongside:Arlen Specter | Succeeded by |
| Class 1 |  | |
|---|---|---|
| Class 3 | ||
| Notes | † Never officially seated | |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| People | |
| Other | |
