Frank Church

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Frank Forrester Church III (July 25, 1924 – April 7, 1984) was a United States Senator from Idaho from 1957 to 1981. Church was a member of the Idaho Democratic Party.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Political career 3 Death 4 References 5 External links

[edit] Early life

Frank Church was raised in Boise, Idaho. In his youth, Church admired William E. Borah, who then represented Idaho in the United States Senate. Church graduated from Boise High School in 1942, where he served as student body president. As a junior in 1941, he won the American Legion National Oratorical Contest. The prize was sufficient to provide for four years at the college of the winner's choice. Church chose Stanford University, enrolling in 1942.

In 1943, Church enlisted in the U.S. Army and served as a military intelligence officer in the China-Burma-India theater. Following his discharge in 1946, he returned to Stanford to complete his education, receiving his bachelor's degree in 1947.

Also in 1947, he married Bethine Clark, daughter of Chase A. Clark, a former Democratic governor of Idaho, and entered Harvard Law School. After one year at Harvard, Church transferred to Stanford Law School, when he thought the cold Massachusetts winter was the cause of a pain in his lower back. The pain did not go away and the doctors soon diagnosed the problem as cancer. After removing glands in his lower abdomen, he was given only a few months to live. However, he rebounded from the illness after another doctor started X-ray treatments. This second chance led him to later reflect that "life itself is such a chancy proposition that the only way to live is by taking great chances." In 1950, Church graduated from Stanford Law School and returned to Boise to practice law.

Frank and Bethine had two sons, Frank Forrester Church IV, now of New York City, and Chase Clark Church, now of Boise.

[edit] Political career

Frank Church became an active Democrat in Idaho and after an unsuccessful try for the State Legislature in 1952, he ran for the United States Senate in 1956. After a closely contested primary election against former Senator Glen H. Taylor, Church handily defeated the Republican incumbent Herman Welker in the general election. At the age of 32, Church became the fifth youngest member ever to sit in the U.S. Senate. Church was reelected three times (1962, 1968 and 1974), the only Democrat ever to win reelection to the U.S. Senate from Idaho in the state's history.

Church gained fame during his service in the Senate by the so-called Church Committees, which investigated unconstitutional CIA and FBI intelligence-gathering, laying the groundwork, together with Sam Ervin's Senatorial Committee inquiries, for the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. It also investigated CIA drug smuggling activities in the Golden Triangle and secret wars in Third World countries. He sought the Democratic presidential nomination in 1976, but ceded to Gov. Jimmy Carter of Georgia, who was elected over incumbent Gerald Ford. Frank Church has become a controversial figure, particularly after the September 11th attacks, as his 1970s investigations are blamed by some for reducing the ability of the CIA to gather human intelligence.^[1][2][3][4]

Additionally, Church is remembered for his voting record as a strong liberal and environmental legislator, and he played a major role in the creation of the nation's system of protected wilderness areas in the 1960s. In 1964, Church was the floor sponsor of the National Wilderness Act. In 1968, he sponsored the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act and gained passage of a ten year moratorium on federal plans to transfer water from the Pacific Northwest to California. Working with other members of Congress from northwestern states, Church helped establish the Hells Canyon National Recreation Area along the Oregon-Idaho border, which protected the gorge from dam building. He was also the primary proponent in the establishment of the Sawtooth Wilderness & National Recreation Area in central Idaho in 1972.

This was all the more remarkable considering that he represented one of the most conservative states in the nation. He was also instrumental in the creation of Idaho's River of No Return Wilderness in 1980, his final year in the Senate. This wilderness was comprised of the old Idaho Primitive Area, the Salmon River Breaks Primitive Area, plus additional lands. At 2.36 million acres (9,550 km²), over 3600 square miles, it is the largest wilderness area in the nation outside of Alaska. It was renamed the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness in March 1984, weeks before his death, and is known regionally as "The Frank."

Church was a key figure in American foreign policy during the 1970s. He served as chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations from 1979 to 1981. Church was one of the first senators to publicly oppose the Vietnam War in the 1960s, although he had supported the conflict earlier. In the late 1970s he was a main Congressional supporter of the Torrijos-Carter Treaties, which proposed to return the Panama Canal Zone to Panama. The latter position proved to be widely unpopular in Idaho and led to the formation of the "Anybody But Church Committee (ABC)" by conservative activists.

Not all of Church's positions were liberal. Throughout his tenure in the Senate, he was an opponent of gun control legislation.

In 1976, Church sought the Democratic nomination for president. Although he won primaries in Nebraska, Idaho, Oregon and Montana, he withdrew in favor of the eventual nominee, former Georgia governor Jimmy Carter. Carter reputedly considered naming Church as his running mate but ultimately chose Senator Walter Mondale of Minnesota. Church remains the only Idahoan to win a major party presidential primary election.

Church was defeated for re-election to the Senate by conservative Republican congressman Steve Symms in 1980 by less than one percent of the vote. His defeat was blamed on the activities of the Anybody But Church Committee (which strongly supported Symms) and the announcement of Republican presidential candidate Ronald Reagan's overwhelming win in Idaho before polls closed statewide, which some believe caused many Democrats in northern Idaho to not vote. Following his 24 years in the Senate, Church practiced international law with the Washington, D.C., firm of Whitman and Ransom, specializing in Asian issues.

[edit] Death

In January 1984, Church was hospitalized for a pancreatic tumor and died at home in Bethesda, Maryland, on April 7, 1984, at the age of 59. His funeral was held in Boise and televised throughout Idaho. Church was buried at Morris Hill Cemetery in Boise. His papers, originally given to Stanford University in 1981, were transferred to Boise State University at his request in 1984.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• The Frank Church Institute at Boise State University
• The Frank Church Papers - BSU Library: Special Collections
• Biography: U.S. Congress
• Frank Church Wilderness: User's Guide
• Boise High School's Hall of Fame
• Morris Hill Cemetery Boise,ID

Preceded by: D. Worth Clark	Democratic Party nominee, U.S. Senator (Class 3) from Idaho 1956 (won), 1962 (won), 1968 (won), 1974 (won), 1980 (lost)	Succeeded by: John V. Evans
Preceded by: Herman Welker	United States Senator (Class 3) from Idaho January 3, 1957–January 5, 1981 Served alongside: Henry Dworshak, Len Jordan, Jim McClure	Succeeded by: Steve Symms
Preceded by: John Sparkman	Chair of the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations 1979–1981	Succeeded by: Charles H. Percy

United States Senators from Idaho
Class 2: Shoup • Dubois • Borah • Thomas • Gossett • Dworshak • Miller • Dworshak • Jordan • McClure • Craig Class 3: McConnell • Dubois • Heitfeld • Heyburn • Perky • Brady • Nugent • Gooding • Thomas • Pope • Clark • Taylor • Welker • Church • Symms • Kempthorne • Crapo