Richard L. "Dick" Thornburgh (born July 16, 1932) is a lawyer and Republican politician who served as the Governor of Pennsylvania from 1979 to 1987, and then as the U.S. Attorney General from 1988 to 1991.
Early life and family
Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Thornburgh majored in engineering at Yale University, graduating in 1954. He later earned a law degree from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law in 1957, and joined the law firm of Kirkpatrick & Lockhart a year later.
Thornburgh married Ginny Hooton and fathered three children. Ginny Hooton Thornburgh was killed in an automobile accident that also injured all three of their children. Their youngest son Peter was left disabled due to brain damage. Four years later, Thornburgh married his second wife Ginny Judson who adopted Dick's three sons. The couple would have a fourth child together. Ginny Judson Thornburgh later became an advocate for the disabled and served as a representative of the National Organization on Disability. Mrs. Thornburgh was a vocal advocate for the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act, which was signed into law while her husband was a member of George H.W. Bush's cabinet.
Political career
U.S. Attorney
Following a failed bid for the U.S. House of Representatives in 1966, Thornburgh served as a delegate to the 1967-1968 Pennsylvania Constitutional Convention. In 1969 President Richard Nixon appointed Thornburgh as the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania, where he earned a reputation as being tough on organized crime. In 1975, President Gerald Ford tapped him to serve as the Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department's Criminal Division. After two years at that post, Thornburgh returned to private practice.
Pennsylvania Governor
In 1978, Thornburgh launched a campaign for Pennsylvania governor. Despite a Democratic majority in the commonwealth, he and running mate William W. Scranton III defeated Pittsburgh mayor Pete Flaherty. The victory was attributed to Thornburgh's campaign promises to crack down on government corruption, at a time when 230 state officials were convicted of corruption. Thornburgh and Scranton won re-election in 1982.
In what was likely the biggest event during his gubernatorial career, Thornburgh oversaw emergency response efforts to the partial meltdown at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant near Harrisburg in 1979. To quell public fears, he ordered a partial evacuation of the area, and was partly responsible for overseeing cleanup efforts.
Throughout the 1980s, Thornburgh attempted to balance the commonwealth's budget through conservative fiscal policies. Though successful, he was criticized by organized labor for eliminating 15,000 state jobs.
Thornburgh was also responsible for consolidating all of Pennsylvania's state-owned colleges and universities into the State System of Higher Education. He also created the Governor's Schools, which were summer programs for talented and gifted high school students.
After leaving office in 1987, Thornburgh served as director of the Institute of Politics at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.
U.S. Attorney General
In 1988, President Ronald Reagan appointed Thornburgh as the United States Attorney General. His main priorities were to crack down on drug trafficking and white-collar crime. Thornburgh also oversaw prosecution against Exxon in the aftermath of the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska.
Later political life
He resigned as Attorney General in 1991 to run for the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Senator John Heinz, who was killed in a plane crash. Following his loss to Democrat Harris Wofford, Thornburgh served as undersecretary general to the United Nations from 1992 to 1993.
Returns to private life
After his time in politics, Thornburgh reentered private legal practice returning to Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Nicholson Graham, the law firm he originally joined in 1958. In 2002, the US Bankruptcy Court in the Southern District of New York appointed him as an examiner in the WorldCom bankruptcy proceedings. His report to the court included damning criticism of KPMG, WorldCom's accounting firm, and banking giant Citigroup. The report concluded that the two companies aided WorldCom executives in committing fraud.
In 2004, he was appointed to an independent panel set up by CBS to investigate the so-called Memogate controversy. In October 2005 he was hired to represent controversial Pennsylvania politician Cyril Wecht. Wecht was later indicted on January 20, 2006 on 84 counts of corruption while in office and Thornburgh is expected to lead the defense team.
Trivia
He gave an interview for Da Ali G Show in which he admitted seeing the pornographic movie Barely Legal III, and immediatelly denied that. (Ali: "Has you seen that film?" Thornburgh: "Yes. No, I haven't. I will now, because you recommended it.")
External links
- Thornburgh's biography from the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission.
- The Dick Thornburgh Papers at the University of Pittsburgh.