MARK HATFIELD

'Mark Odom Hatfield' (born July 12, 1922) is a former United States Senator and Governor of Oregon. He is a member of the Republican Party.

Contents

Biography

Career in politics

Honors

Books

Authored:

Contributed to:

References

External links

Biography

Hatfield was born in Dallas, Oregon,^[1] the son of Dovie Odom Hatfield, a schoolteacher, and Charles Hatfield, a railroad blacksmith. He and his wife, Antoinette (formerly Kuzmanich), were married in 1958. They have four children and eight grandchildren. Senator Hatfield graduated from Salem High School and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Willamette University in 1943. While attending Willamette University, Senator Hatfield became a brother of Alpha Phi Omega and a brother and local founder of Beta Theta Pi.
After graduation, Hatfield joined the U.S. Navy, taking part in the World War II battles at Iwo Jima and Okinawa as a landing craft officer. He also witnessed the effects of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima (and later, as a Senator, he was strongly against nuclear weapons and the Vietnam War). After Japan, he served in French Indochina. After his discharge, he obtained a master's degree in political science from Stanford University in 1948.

Career in politics

In 1950, while teaching political science and serving as dean of students at his undergraduate alma mater, Senator Hatfield began his political career in the Oregon Legislative Assembly. After two terms in the Oregon House of Representatives and two years in the Oregon State Senate, he became the youngest secretary of state in Oregon history in 1956 at age 34. Two years later, he was elected Governor of Oregon, and became the state's first two-term governor in the 20th century when he was re-elected in 1962.^[2] Hatfield was a popular and progressive Governor, who supported Oregon's traditional industries of timber and agriculture, but realized that in the postwar era, expansion of industry and funding for transportation and education needed to be priorities.
Hatfield's victory in a Democratic year made him something of a national figure. He gave the keynote speech at the 1964 Republican National Convention in San Francisco that nominated Barry Goldwater. Hatfield denounced the extreme conservatism that Goldwater and his supporters were associated with. In 1968, Hatfield was on Richard Nixon's short list for vice president, and received the strong backing of his friend, the Rev. Billy Graham. Hatfield was considered too liberal by many southern conservatives, and the more centrist Maryland Governor Spiro Agnew was chosen by Nixon. Hatfield would later find himself at odds with Nixon and Agnew over Vietnam and other issues.
In 1966, Hatfield won a seat in the U.S. Senate, a position he retained for five terms. Although Hatfield was generally popular, he only narrowly defeated hawkish Congressman Robert Duncan in 1966, and had a surprisingly tough final race against businessman Harry Lonsdale in 1990.
As a senator, Hatfield took positions that made him hard to classify politically. Unlike most senators, Hatfield was strongly pro-life on the issues of abortion and the death penalty. Although a prominent evangelical Christian, he opposed government-sponsored school prayer and supported civil rights for minorities and gays. In 1970, with Senator George McGovern (D-South Dakota), he cosponsored the McGovern-Hatfield Amendment, which called for a complete withdrawal of U.S. troops from Vietnam. In the 1980s, Hatfield cosponsored nuclear freeze legislation with Senator Edward M. Kennedy, and in 1990 he voted against the Gulf War. Hatfield frequently broke with his party on issues of national defense and foreign policy, such as military spending and the ban on travel to Cuba, while frequently siding with them on environmental and conservation issues. He was the lone Republican to vote against the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act and the failed Balanced Budget Amendment.
Hatfield enjoyed warm relations with members of both parties and was sometimes referred to as "Saint Mark". However, in 1984, columnist Jack Anderson revealed that Mrs. Hatfield, a realtor, had been paid $50,000 in dubious fees by arms dealer Basil Tsakos.^[3] Tsakos had been lobbying Senator Hatfield, then Appropriations Chairman, for funding for a $6 billion trans-African pipeline.^[4] The Hatfields apologized and returned the money. In 1991, it was revealed that Hatfield had failed to report a number of expensive gifts. Again, he apologized.
Senator Hatfield retired in 1996 after more than 46 years of political service, having never lost an election.^[5]
After retiring, he joined the faculty of George Fox University. As of 2006, he is Emeritus Distinguished Professor of Politics. He teaches at the Hatfield School of Government at Portland State University.

Honors

Senator Hatfield has had several institutions named after him:

★ Mark O. Hatfield Clinical Research Center at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland

★ Hatfield Marine Science Center, Oregon State University's marine biology research center in Newport, Oregon

★ Hatfield School of Government at Portland State University

★ Hatfield Research Center at Oregon Health & Science University in Portland, Oregon, where he currently serves on the University Board of Directors.^[6]

★ Mark O. Hatfield Institute for International Understanding at Southwestern Oregon Community College
Awards:

★ Senator Mark Hatfield Award for Clinical Research in Alzheimer's Disease from the Alzheimer’s Association
Landmarks:

★ Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse in Portland, Oregon

★ Hatfield Government Center station at the western terminus of the MAX Blue Line light rail in Hillsboro, Oregon

★ Mark O. Hatfield Library at Willamette University in Salem, Oregon

Books

Senator Hatfield merited his own chapter in Tom Brokaw's ''The Greatest Generation'' (ISBN 0-375-50202-5).

Authored:

★ ''Not Quite So Simple'' (1967)

★ ''Conflict and Conscience'' (1971), ISBN 0-87680-811-9

★ ''Between a Rock and a Hard Place'' (1976), ISBN 0-87680-427-X

★ ''Against the Grain: Reflections of a Rebel Republican'' (2000), ISBN 1-883991-36-6

Contributed to:

★ ''Amnesty: The Unsettled Question of Vietnam'' (1976)

★ ''The Causes of World Hunger'' (1982)

★ (with Edward Kennedy) ''Freeze! How You Can Help Prevent Nuclear War'' (1982), ISBN 0-553-14077-9

★ ''What About the Russians: A Christian Approach to US-Soviet Conflict'' (1984), ISBN 0-87178-751-2

★ ''Lessons and Legacies: Farewell Addresses from the Senate'' (1996)

★ (editor) ''Vice Presidents of the United States: 1789–1993'' (1997), ISBN 0614312019

★ ''Diary of a Contraband: The Civil War Passage of a Black Sailor'' (2003), ISBN 0-8047-4708-3

★ (Intro) ''Real Christianity'' (1982), ISBN 1-55661-832-8

References

1. Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
2. House Report 104-587 — Designation of Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse
3. Oil Slick
4. An Inquiry Clears Hatfield
5. Former U.S. Sen. Mark O. Hatfield to help guide OHSU as member of it's governing board
6. Mark Hatfield, Henry Hewitt named to OHSU Board of Directors

External links

★ Congressional biography