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Howard Baker

Howard Henry Baker Jr. (November 15, 1925 – June 26, 2014) was an American politician, diplomat and photographer who served as a United States Senator from Tennessee from 1967 to 1985. During his tenure, he rose to the rank of Senate Minority Leader and then Senate Majority Leader. A member of the Republican Party, Baker was the first Republican to be elected to the US Senate in Tennessee since the Reconstruction era.

For other people named Howard Baker, see Howard Baker (disambiguation).

Howard Baker

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Howard Henry Baker Jr.

(1925-11-15)November 15, 1925
Huntsville, Tennessee, U.S.

June 26, 2014(2014-06-26) (aged 88)
Huntsville, Tennessee, U.S.

Joy Dirksen
(m. 1951; died 1993)
(m. 1996)

2

United States

1943–1946

Known in Washington, D.C., as the "Great Conciliator", Baker was often regarded as one of the most successful senators in terms of brokering compromises, enacting legislation, and maintaining civility. For example, he had a lead role in the fashioning and passing of the Clean Air Act of 1970 with Democratic senator Edmund Muskie.[1] A moderate conservative, he was also respected by his Democratic colleagues.[2]


Baker sought the Republican presidential nomination in 1980 but dropped out after the first set of primaries. From 1987 to 1988, he served as White House Chief of Staff for President Ronald Reagan. From 2001 to 2005, he was the United States Ambassador to Japan.

Early life[edit]

Baker was born on November 15, 1925, in Huntsville, Tennessee, to Dora Ladd Baker and Howard Baker Sr.[3] His father served as a Republican member of the US House of Representatives from 1951 to 1964, representing Tennessee's Second District.[4] Baker attended The McCallie School in Chattanooga,[5] and after graduating, he attended Tulane University in New Orleans.[5] Baker was an alumnus of the Alpha Sigma Chapter of the Pi Kappa Phi fraternity.[6] During World War II, he trained at a U.S. Navy facility on the campus of the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee,[4] in the V-12 Navy College Training Program. He served as a lieutenant in the United States Navy[4] and graduated from the University of Tennessee College of Law in 1949.[5] That year, he was admitted to the Tennessee bar and began his law practice.[7]

Senate career[edit]

Baker began his political career in 1964, when he lost to the liberal Democrat Ross Bass in a US Senate election to fill the unexpired term of the late Senator Estes Kefauver. However, Baker only lost by 4.7 percentage points, the closest that a Republican had come to being popularly elected to the Senate from Tennessee.


In the 1966 United States Senate election in Tennessee, Bass lost the Democratic primary to a former Governor of Tennessee, Frank G. Clement, and Baker handily won his Republican primary race against Kenneth Roberts, 112,617 (75.7 percent) to 36,043 (24.2 percent).[8] Baker won the general election, capitalizing on Clement's failure to energize the Democratic base, especially organized labor. He won by a somewhat larger-than-expected margin of 55.7 percent to Clement's 44.2 percent.[9] Baker thus became the first Republican senator from Tennessee since Reconstruction and the first Republican to be popularly elected to the Senate from Tennessee. Baker voted in favor of the Civil Rights Act of 1968 and the confirmation of Thurgood Marshall to the U.S. Supreme Court.[10][11]


Baker was re-elected in 1972 and again in 1978 and served from January 3, 1967, to January 3, 1985. In 1969, he was already a candidate for the Minority Leadership position that opened up with the death of his father-in-law, Everett Dirksen, but Baker was defeated 24–19 by Hugh Scott.[12] At the beginning of the next Congress, in 1971, Baker ran again, losing again to Scott, 24–20.[13]


When Scott retired, Baker was elected as leader of the Senate Republicans in 1977 by his Republican colleagues, defeating Robert Griffin, 19–18.[14] Baker led the Senate GOP for the last eight years of his tenure, serving two terms as Senate Minority Leader from 1977 to 1981, and two terms as Senate Majority Leader from 1981 to 1985, a role he transitioned to after the Republicans gained the majority in the Senate in the 1980 elections.


Baker did not seek further re-election and concluded his Senate career in 1985. He was succeeded by Democratic Representative and future Vice President Al Gore.

Reagan administration[edit]

In 1984, Baker received the Presidential Medal of Freedom.[25]


In October 1983, Baker voted in favor of the bill establishing Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a federal holiday.[26]


As a testament to Baker's skill as a negotiator and an honest and amiable broker, Reagan tapped him to serve as Chief of Staff during part of Reagan's second term (1987–1988). Many saw that as a move by Reagan to mend relations with the Senate, which had deteriorated somewhat under the previous chief of staff, Donald Regan.[27] In accepting the appointment, Baker chose to skip another bid for the White House in 1988.[28]

Death[edit]

On June 26, 2014, Baker died at the age of 88 from complications of a stroke that he had suffered a week earlier. He was in his native Huntsville, Tennessee, with his wife, Nancy, by his side.[37]

He received the Golden Plate Award of the in 1973.[38]

American Academy of Achievement

He received the US Senator Award for Greatest Public Service by an Elected or Appointed Official in 1981, given out annually by the Jefferson Awards[39]

John Heinz

He received the in 1984.

Presidential Medal of Freedom

The at the University of Tennessee College of Law was renamed for Baker.

rotunda

While he was delivering a commencement speech during his grandson's graduation at , Johnson City, Tennessee, on May 5, 2007, Baker was awarded an honorary doctorate degree.[40]

East Tennessee State University

He received the , 2008 (Japan)[41]

Order of the Paulownia Flowers

Snail darter controversy

Annis, James Lee (2007) [1995]. . Madison Books. ISBN 978-1-57233-591-2.

Howard Baker: Conciliator in an Age of Crisis

U.S. Congress. Senate. Tributes to the Honorable Howard Baker, Jr., of Tennessee in the United States Senate, Upon the Occasion of His Retirement from the Senate. 98th Cong., 2d sess., 1984. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1984.

United States Congress. . Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.

"Howard Baker (id: B000063)"

Biography from the Howard H. Baker Center for Public Policy at the University of Tennessee

Citigroup biography

Archived August 1, 2020, at the Wayback Machine

Howard H. Baker Papers, University of Tennessee Knoxville Libraries

at IMDb

Howard Baker

on C-SPAN

Appearances