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, which is also the name of a
biography of Hart by
Michael O'Brien.
He was born in
Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania and attended Waldron Academy and parochial schools. 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 Stablization, 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 lieutenant governor,
1955-
1958.
He was elected as a
Democrat to the
United States Senate in
1958, and was reelected in
1964 and
1970. There had been a call from conservatives in Michigan to recall Hart due to his stand on gun control and bussing, with bumper stickers reading "Recall cures Hart attacks." The recall effort never got off the ground, and Hart remained in office. He did not run for reelection to a fourth term in
1976. Hart died of
cancer in 1976, a few days before his term would have expired and he would have retired.
Donald W. Riegle, Jr., who had just been elected as Senator, was named to fill Hart's seat for the remaining days of the congressional session.
The third of the
United States Senate Office Buildings, the
Hart Senate Building, was officially dedicated and named for Senator Hart in
1987.
The
Hart-Dole-Inouye Federal Center in
Battle Creek, Michigan also bears his name, as does Detroit's
Hart Plaza park. He is interred in St. Anne's Catholic Cemetery on
Mackinac Island.
