Philip Hart

Philip Aloysius Hart (December 10, 1912 – December 26, 1976) was a Democratic United States Senator from Michigan from 1959 until 1976. He was nicknamed the Conscience of the Senate.

Early years

He was born in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, and attended Waldron Academy and West Philadelphia Catholic High School for Boys, also known as West Catholic. He graduated from Georgetown University in 1934 and from the University of Michigan Law School in 1937. He was admitted to the Michigan bar in 1938 and practiced law in Detroit. During the Second World War, he served in the U.S. Army from 1941 until discharged in 1946 as a lieutenant colonel of Infantry. He was wounded during the D-Day assault on Utah Beach in Normandy, France.

After the war, he was the Michigan Corporation Securities Commissioner from 1949 until his resignation in 1951. He was the State director of the Office of Price Stabilization, 1951–1952, and the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan, 1952–1953. He was legal advisor to the Governor of Michigan, 1953–1954, and the 49th Lieutenant Governor of Michigan, 1955–1959 under G. Mennen "Soapy" Williams.

Philip Hart was married to Jane "Janey" Hart, the daughter of Walter Briggs, one-time owner of the Detroit Tigers, and noted philanthropist. Jane was an airplane and helicopter pilot, (of Mercury 13 fame) and together they had eight children. In 1959 Janey Hart appeared as a guest challenger on the TV panel show "To Tell The Truth".

Career in the Senate

He was elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate in 1958, defeating one-term incumbent Republican Charles E. Potter by a 54% to 46% margin. He was reelected by overwhelming margins in 1964 and 1970. There had been a call from conservatives in Michigan to recall Hart from office due to his stand on gun control and busing, with bumper stickers reading "Recall cures Hart attacks." The recall effort never got off the ground, because the United States Constitution does not authorize the recall of federal officials.

Hart remained in office until his death. He had decided not to run for reelection to a fourth term in 1976. That year, the Senate voted to name its new Senate office building after him: The Hart Senate Office Building. It would have been the first federal government building named after someone still living. The vote was 99 to 0, with Hart abstaining. Hart died of cancer a few days later, just before his term would have expired and he would have retired. Donald W. Riegle, Jr., who had just been elected to the seat for the next term, was named to fill Hart's seat for the remaining days of the congressional session.

Honors

The third of the United States Senate office buildings, the Hart Senate Office Building, was officially dedicated and named for Senator Hart in 1987.

Other buildings named after Hart include the Hart-Dole-Inouye Federal Center in Battle Creek, Michigan; the Philip A. Hart Plaza along the Detroit International Riverfront; and the Hart-Kennedy House in Lansing, the headquarters of the Michigan Democratic Party.

The Philip Hart Memorial Scholarship at Lake Superior State University in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan is a full scholarship established to carry on the ideals and goals of the Senator.

The moot court room at Georgetown University Law Center is named in his honor.

Hart is interred in St. Anne's Catholic Cemetery on Mackinac Island.

References

• Philip Hart at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress Retrieved on 2008-01-25
• The Political Graveyard
• Georgetown University Law Center – Campus Tour

Further reading

• O’Brien, Michael. Philip Hart: The Conscience of the Senate. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 1995. ISBN 978-0870134074