William Proxmire
Edward William Proxmire (
November 11 1915 –
December 15 2005) was a member of the
Democratic Party who served in the
United States Senate for the state of
Wisconsin from
1957 to
1989. He graduated from
The Hill School in 1933,
Yale University in
1938,
Harvard Business School in
1940, and
Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences in
1948. During
World War II he served as a member of the Military Intelligence Service. He married Elsie Rockefeller, a great-granddaughter of
William Rockefeller, brother and partner of oil magnate
John D. Rockefeller. They had two children, Theodore, who lives in
Bethesda,
Maryland, and Elsie Proxmire Zwerner, of
Scottsdale,
Arizona. Elsie Proxmire received an uncontested divorce in 1955.
In 1956, Proxmire married Ellen Hodges Sawall, who brought two children of her own to the marriage, Mary Ellen Poulos, now of Milwaukee, and Jan Licht, now of
Naperville,
Illinois. Together, the couple had two sons, William, who died in infancy, and Douglas, who lives in
McLean,
Virginia. Nine grandchildren survive Proxmire.
Proxmire served as a member of the
Wisconsin State Assembly from
1951 to
1952 and was an unsuccessful candidate for
Governor of Wisconsin in
1952,
1954 and
1956. Senator Proxmire was elected to fill the remainder of the term vacated due to the death of Senator
Joseph McCarthy in
1957. Senator Proxmire served as the Chairman of the Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs from
1975 to
1981 and again from
1987 to
1989.
Sen. Proxmire was an early, outspoken critic of the
Vietnam War. He frequently criticized Presidents
Lyndon Johnson and
Richard Nixon for their conduct of the war and foreign policy decisions. He used his seat on the Senate Armed Services Committee to spotlight wasteful military spending and was instrumental in stopping frequent military
pork barrel projects. His
Golden Fleece Award was created to focus media attention on projects he felt were self-serving and wasted taxpayer dollars. He was also head of the campaign to cancel the American
supersonic transport.
As Chairman of the Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, Proxmire was instrumental in devising the financial plan that saved New York City from bankruptcy in
1976-
77.
In his last two Senate campaigns of 1976 and
1982, Proxmire refused to take any campaign contributions, and spent on each less than $200 out of his own pocket — to cover the expenses related to filing for re-election and return postage for unsolicited contributions. He was an early advocate of campaign finance reform.
Proxmire was famous for issuing his Golden Fleece Awards identifying wasteful government spending between
1975 and
1988. The first one was awarded in 1975 to the
National Science Foundation for funding an $84,000 study on "why people fall in love." Proxmire's critics claimed that his awards went to basic science projects that led to important breakthroughs, such as the
Aspen Movie Map. He was heavily criticized for this by journalist
Stewart Brand, but Proxmire later apologized for several of those, including
SETI. As with pork barrel spending on defense projects, he successfully stopped numerous science and academic projects of dubious value.
One winner of the Golden Fleece Award, Ronald Hutchinson, was so outraged that he sued Proxmire for
defamation in 1976. Proxmire claimed that his statements about Hutchinson's research were protected by the Speech and Debate Clause of the
U.S. Constitution. The
U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Clause does not immunize members of Congress from liability for defamatory statements made outside of formal congressional proceedings.
Hutchinson v. Proxmire, .
From
1967 until
1986, Proxmire gave daily speeches noting the necessity of ratifying The
Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. After giving this speech every day that the Senate was in session for 20 years, resulting in 3,211 speeches, the convention was ratified by the U.S. Senate by a vote on 83-11 on
February 11,
1986. He was also known for his fitness and so was nicknamed "push up".
He died from
Alzheimer's disease in
Sykesville, Maryland on
December 15,
2005, aged 90.
*
As senator, a tenacious Proxmire had a good run --
The Boston Globe*
Proxmire, Lake Forest native, dies --
The Lake Forester
