Michael Pertschuk
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Michael Pertschuk is a public health and consumer advocate, author and former government official. He served as consumer counsel and later chief counsel and staff director to the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, from 1965 to 1976; as chairman of the Federal Trade Commission from 1977 to 1981 and as a commissioner of the FTC until 1984; and as co-founder and co-director of the Advocacy Institute. He is the author of Revolt against Regulation: The Rise and Pause of the Consumer Movement; Giant Killers; Smoke in Their Eyes: Lessons in Movement Leadership from the Tobacco Wars; and, with Wendy Schaetzel, The People Rising: The Campaign Against the Bork Nomination. He was born in 1933 in London, England. While on the Senate Commerce Committee staff, he was instrumental in drafting the landmark legislation that required warnings on cigarette labels and that banned broadcast advertising of tobacco products.
He is the author of four of the tobacco control movement’s most influential guides, and he was instrumental in developing GLOBALink, the primary communication tool for the international tobacco control movement. He founded the Smoking Control Advocacy Resource Center, which as part of the Advocacy Institute provided guides, training, strategic counseling, and other resources to combat the tobacco industry.
The papers of Michael Pertschuk (index on web) are available at the United States Library of Congress. They span the years 1949-2002, with the majority of the papers concentrated from 1977 through 2001. They focus on Pertschuk's work in the arena of consumer protection and consist of two parts processed at different times. Part I relates primarily to Pertschuk's career in the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Part II focuses primarily on his writing projects and his work in the field of public interest lobbying and as a tobacco control advocate in the years following his departure from the Federal Trade Commission. The file includes correspondence with Jack Anderson, Patricia P. Bailey, David Brinkley, Jimmy Carter, David Cohen, John D. Dingell, James Florio, Lewis H. Goldfarb, David Horowitz, George W. Koch, Warren G. Magnuson, Colman McCarthy, James C. Miller III, Walter Mondale, Edmund S. Muskie, Ralph Nader, Victor S. Navasky, Esther Peterson, Robert Pitofsky, Alan A. Ransom, Ronald Reagan, David A. Rice, Warren B. Rudman, Alan K. Simpson, Philip M. Stern, Robert S. Strauss, Jack Watson, and Caspar W. Weinberger.
Biography
1933, Jan. 12 Born London, England 1954 B.A., Yale University, New Haven, Conn. 1954 Married, Carleen Joyce Dooley (divorced 1976) 1954-1956 First lieutenant, artillery, United States Army 1957 Assistant in instruction, Yale University Law School, Yale University, New Haven, Conn. 1959 LL.D., J.D., Yale University, New Haven, Conn. 1959 Admitted to Oregon bar 1959-1960 Law clerk for United States District Court Judge Gus O. Solomon, Portland, Oreg. 1960-1962 Associate in law firm, Hart, Rockwood, Davies, Biggs & Strayer, Portland, Oreg. 1962-1964 Legislative assistant, Senator Maurine B. Neuberger of Oregon 1964-1968 Consumer counsel, Senate Commerce Committee 1968-1977 Chief counsel, staff director, Senate Commerce Committee 1977 Married Anna Sofaer 1977-1981 Chairman, Federal Trade Commission 1981-1984 Commissioner, Federal Trade Commission 1982 Published Revolt Against Regulation: The Rise and Pause of the Consumer Movement. Berkeley: University of California Press 1984- Codirector, Advocacy Institute, Washington, D.C. (now director emeritus) 1984-1985 Fellow, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Washington, D.C. 1986 Published Giant Killers. New York: Norton 1989 Published with Wendy Schaetzel The People Rising: The Campaign Against the Bork Nomination. New York: Thunder's Mouth Press 2001 Published Smoke in Their Eyes: Lessons in Movement Leadership from the Tobacco Wars. Nashville, Tenn.: Vanderbilt University Press
References
Biographical Note, Michael Pertschuk Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
Michael Pertschuk Career Service Award 2003, American Cancer Society
