Newton Steers

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Newton Ivan Steers, Jr. (January 13, 1917February 11, 1993), a Republican, was a U.S. Congressman who represented Maryland's 8th congressional district from January 3, 1977 to January 3, 1979.

Steers was born in Glen Ridge, New Jersey, and attended the White Plains, New York public schools. He graduated from the Hotchkiss School of Lakeville, Connecticut in 1935, and received a B.A. from Yale University in 1939. He obtained a Certificate of Advanced Meteorology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1943, and his J.D. degree from the Yale Law School in 1948.

In 1957 Steers married Nina Gore Auchincloss (born 1935), a half sister of the writer Gore Vidal and a stepsister of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. They had three children, Hugh Auchincloss Steers (1963 — 1995), Ivan Steers, and Burr Steers (born 1965). They were divorced in 1974.

Steers was admitted to the New York bar (1958), and later to the District of Columbia bar (1967), and worked with the DuPont company from 1939 to 1941. During World War II, he served in United States Army Air Corps from 1941 to 1946. After the war, he worked with GAF Corp. from 1948 to 1951, and the United States Atomic Energy Commission from 1951 to 1953. He also became president of several investment companies in New York from 1953 through 1965.

In 1962, Steers entered politics and was an unsuccessful candidate for election in 1962 to the 88th Congress. He served as Maryland Republican State chairman from 1964 to 1966, and as Maryland State insurance commissioner from 1967 to 1970. In 1970, Steers became Maryland Assistant Secretary of Licensing and Regulation and a member of the Maryland State Senate, serving from 1971 to 1977. He served as a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1964 and 1984.

In 1976, Steers was elected as a Republican to the 95th Congress, serving from January 3, 1977 until January 3, 1979. He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1978 to the 96th Congress and for election in 1980 to the 97th Congress. He was also an unsuccessful candidate for election as Lieutenant Governor of Maryland in 1982. Steers was a resident of Bethesda, Maryland until his death there in 1993.


Preceded by
Gilbert Gude
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Maryland's 8th congressional district

1977–1979
Succeeded by
Michael D. Barnes
Representatives to the 95th United States Congress from Maryland
95th Senate: C. Mathias | P. Sarbanes House: C. Long | G. Byron | P. Mitchell | M. Holt | R. Bauman | G. Spellman | B. Mikulski | N. Steers