Richard Schweiker

He was the son of Malcolm Alderfer Schweiker, Sr. (February 27, 1895 – June 12, 1982) and his wife, the former Blanche R. Schultz (December 17, 1894 – September 1974).

His father and his uncle worked in the tiling business for several decades.

He was born into a family of Schwenckfelders and was a member of the church himself.

Richard Schultz Schweiker (June 1, 1926 – July 31, 2015) was an American businessman and politician.

Schweiker was born in Norristown, Pennsylvania, on June 1, 1926.

Schweiker received his early education at public schools in Worcester, and graduated from Norristown Area High School as valedictorian in 1944.

During World War II, he served in the U.S. Navy aboard the aircraft carrier USS Tarawa (CV-40), being discharged with the rank of electronics technician (second class) in 1946.

Following his military service, Schweiker attended Slippery Rock State College for two years before transferring to Pennsylvania State University.

He won 53% of the vote, the highest of any senator from Pennsylvania since 1946 at the time.

He was the first Republican senator ever endorsed by the Pennsylvania AFL–CIO, and received 49% of the vote in heavily Democratic Philadelphia.

He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology from Penn State in 1950, graduating as a member of the Phi Kappa Sigma.

He then joined his family's business, American Olean Tile Company, rising from an assistant in the personnel department to the company's president within a few years.

He also became active in local Republican politics, serving as a precinct committeeman, and founded the Montgomery County chapter of the Young Republicans, of which he was president from 1952 to 1954.

He was selected as an alternate delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1952 and in 1956.

On September 10, 1955, Schweiker married Claire Joan Coleman, a former host of the children's television show Romper Room, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (1954–1956).

They had two sons and three daughters.

In 1960, Schweiker was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania's 13th congressional district.

At the time, the Montgomery County-based district included Schweiker's home town of Norristown and several affluent suburban communities in the Philadelphia Main Line.

A moderate to liberal Republican, he defeated conservative incumbent John A. Lafore, Jr., in the Republican primary.

In the general election, he defeated Democrat Warren Ballard, a law professor at Temple University, 62%–38%.

He was elected to three more terms, never receiving less than 59% of the vote.

During his tenure in the House, Schweiker served on the Armed Services Committee and the Government Operations Committee.

He previously served as a U.S. Representative (1961–1969) and a U.S. Senator (1969–1981) from Pennsylvania.

Schweiker voted for the Civil Rights Acts of 1964 and 1968 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

He also supported the creation of Medicare, increases in Social Security, and federal rent subsidies.

He sponsored legislation, signed into law in 1965, that provided cash awards to United States Armed Forces personnel for cost-cutting ideas.

He considered running for governor of Pennsylvania in 1966, but state Republican leaders persuaded him not to in favor of then-Lieutenant Governor Raymond P. Shafer.

In 1968, Schweiker was elected to the U.S. Senate, defeating two-term Democratic incumbent Joseph S. Clark, Jr., by more than 280,000 votes.

He was the only successful Republican statewide candidate in an election that saw Hubert Humphrey win Pennsylvania by over 170,000 votes.

Continuing his progressive reputation in the Senate, Schweiker opposed the Vietnam War and President Richard Nixon's nominations of Clement Haynsworth and G. Harrold Carswell to the U.S. Supreme Court, and had an 89% rating from the liberal Americans for Democratic Action.

He also supported school prayer and opposed stronger widespread gun control.

This legislation, passed by Congress in 1974, established the National Commission on Diabetes to create a long-term plan to fight the disease.

Schweiker was reelected in 1974, defeating his Democratic opponent, Pittsburgh mayor Peter F. Flaherty, in a year when many Republican incumbents lost due to political fallout from the Watergate scandal.

In 1975, alongside fellow Republicans Clifford Case and Jacob Javits, Schweiker was a co-sponsor of Ted Kennedy's Health Security Act, a bill proposing universal health coverage in America through a government-run program.

During his tenure in the Senate, Schweiker served as the ranking member on both the Labor and Human Resources Committee and the Labor, Health, and Human Services Appropriations Subcommittee.

He was a pioneer in increasing government spending on diabetes mellitus research, authoring and sponsoring of the National Diabetes Mellitus Research and Education Act.

From 1975 to 1976, Schweiker was a member of the Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, headed by Idaho Senator Frank Church, investigating illegal domestic activities of the United States government's intelligence agencies.

The "Church Committee" found that allegations of CIA plots to assassinate Cuban Premier Fidel Castro during John F. Kennedy's presidency went unreported to the Warren Commission even though CIA director Allen Dulles was a member of the Commission.

In 1976, Schweiker was Reagan's running mate during his unsuccessful presidential campaign.

A member of the Republican Party, he served as the 14th U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services under President Ronald Reagan from 1981 to 1983.