James K. Coyne, III

James Kitchenman Coyne III (born November 17, 1946) was a Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania.

Biography

Coyne was born in Farmville, Virginia, and raised in Abington, Pennsylvania, the son of James Kitchenman Coyne, Jr., and Pearl Beatrice Black. He graduated from Yale University in 1968, and received an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School in 1970. He was a lecturer at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania from 1974 to 1979. He served as president of the George S. Coyne Chemical Corp., Inc. from 1971 to 1981, and was supervisor of Upper Makefield Township in 1980.

He was elected in 1980 as a Republican to the 97th Congress. He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1982. After his term in Congress, he served as a Special Assistant to President Ronald Reagan and as Director of the White House Office of Private Sector Initiatives from 1983 to 1985, as Chief Executive Officer of the American Consulting Engineers Council in 1985–1986, and as president of the American Tort Reform Association from 1986 to 1988. In 1987 he was the founder of Americans to Limit Congressional Terms. He co-authored (with John Fund) "Cleaning House," which promoted state referenda to limit the terms of Members of Congress. In 1994 he was chosen President of the National Air Transportation Association and continues in that post today. He married Helen Biddle Mercer on October 24, 1970. They have three children, Alexander Black Coyne (born 1977), Katherine Mercer Coyne (born 1980) and Michael Atkinson Coyne (born 1982).

Sources

• James K. Coyne, III at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress