Bob Packwood | |
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United States Senator from Oregon |
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In office January 3, 1969 – October 1, 1995 |
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Preceded by | Wayne Morse |
Succeeded by | Ron Wyden |
Chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance | |
In office January 3, 1985 – January 3, 1987 |
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Preceded by | Bob Dole |
Succeeded by | Lloyd Bentsen |
In office January 3, 1995 – October 1, 1995 |
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Preceded by | Daniel Patrick Moynihan |
Succeeded by | William V. Roth, Jr. |
Chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee | |
In office January 3, 1981 – January 3, 1985 |
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Preceded by | Howard Cannon |
Succeeded by | John Danforth |
Member of the Oregon House of Representatives | |
In office 1963–1968 |
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Personal details | |
Born |
Robert William Packwood September 11, 1932 Portland, Oregon, US |
Political party | Republican |
Spouse(s) | Georgie Oberteuffer (1964–1991) Elaine Franklin (1998–present) |
Alma mater |
Willamette University (B.A.) New York University (J.D.) |
Religion | Unitarian Universalist |
Robert William "Bob" Packwood (born September 11, 1932) is a U.S. politician from Oregon and a member of the Republican Party. He resigned from the United States Senate, under threat of expulsion, in 1995 after allegations of sexual harassment, abuse and assault of women emerged.
Packwood was born in Portland, Oregon, graduated from Grant High School in 1950, and then in 1954 graduated from Willamette University in Salem.
Packwood is the great-grandson of William H. Packwood, the youngest member of the Oregon Constitutional Convention of 1857. Packwood had his great-grandfather's political bent from his early years. During his undergraduate years, he participated in Young Republican activities and worked on political campaigns, including later Governor and US Senator Mark Hatfield's first run for the Oregon House of Representatives. He received the prestigious Root-Tilden Scholarship to New York University Law School, where he earned national awards in moot court competition and was elected student body president. After graduating from the NYU Law School in 1957, he was admitted to the bar and practiced law in Portland.
In 1960, he was elected Chairman of the Multnomah County Republican Central Committee, thus becoming the youngest party chairman of a major metropolitan area in the country. In 1962, he became the youngest member of the Oregon Legislature when he was elected to the Oregon House of Representatives after a campaign waged by what The Oregonian called "one of the most effective working organizations in many an election moon in Oregon." Hundreds of volunteers went door-to-door distributing leaflets throughout the district and put up lawn signs that became "literally a geographical feature" of the district. Because of the effectiveness of his own campaigns, Packwood was selected to organize a political action committee that recruited attractive Republican candidates for the Oregon House throughout the state, and trained them in "Packwood-style" campaigning methods. The success of his candidates was credited with the Republican takeover of the Oregon House, thus making Oregon the only state in the Union in which the Republicans were able to score a significant victory in 1964.