Mark Gearan
| Mark Gearan | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Director of the Peace Corps | |
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In office September 26, 1995 – August 11, 1999 |
|
| President | Bill Clinton |
| Preceded by | Carol Bellamy |
| Succeeded by | Mark Schneider |
| White House Director of Communications | |
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In office June 7, 1993 – August 14, 1995 |
|
| President | Bill Clinton |
| Preceded by | George Stephanopoulos |
| Succeeded by | Don Baer |
| White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy | |
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In office January 20, 1993 – June 7, 1993 |
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| President | Bill Clinton |
| Preceded by | Robert Zoellick |
| Succeeded by | Harold Ickes |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
September 19, 1956 Gardner, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse(s) | Mary Herlihy |
| Children | 2 daughters |
| Education |
Harvard University (BA) Georgetown University (JD) |
| Website | Official website |
Mark Daniel Gearan (born September 19, 1956) is a public servant, lawyer and higher education expert. Gearan is the current president of Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, New York.
Gearan was born in Gardner, Massachusetts and attended public schools there. Gearan earned his B.A. in government cum laude at Harvard University in 1978 and a law degree from Georgetown University Law Center in 1991. At Harvard he was the college roommate of future lawyer and conservative talk show host Hugh Hewitt. His cousin is Anne Gearan, political correspondent at The Washington Post.
Gearan's early interest in politics began when he helped distribute leaflets in Jesuit priest Robert F. Drinan's campaign for Congress on a strong anti-Vietnam War platform in 1970. "As an eighth-grader growing up in Gardner, I had noticed that a Catholic priest was running for Congress amid the political turmoil of the Vietnam era," said Gearan. "From my early days on a bike leafleting the neighborhoods of Gardner, I graduated to driving the congressman," Gearan added. While an undergraduate at Harvard, Gearan interned in Drinan's Washington office and worked on Drinan's re-election campaign in 1978. It was there that Gearan met his future wife, Mary Herlihy, a fellow staffer in Drinan's office.
Gearan worked as a newspaper reporter for the Fitchburg, Massachusetts Sentinel and Enterprise for one year. After leaving the newspaper, Gearan was chief of staff for U.S. Representative Berkley Bedell of Iowa for three years. In 1983, Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis appointed Gearan Director of Federal State Relations for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, a post he held until 1988 when Gearan joined Dukakis' campaign for the Presidency.
When Dukakis ran for the presidency in 1988, Gearan originally had the high profile job of managing Dukakis' campaign during the crucial Iowa caucuses. When Gary Hart dropped out of the race, the Dukakis campaign replaced Gearan with Hart's Iowa coordinator and sent Gearan back to Boston to be the campaign's national headquarters Press Secretary. Although Gearan was disappointed by the decision, he accepted it. "You know, it's a long life, and there aren't too many other things in politics but loyalty," he said when asked about the incident.
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Wikipedia