Charles H. Percy

Charles Harting Percy ( born September 27, 1919 in Pensacola, Florida; † 17 September 2011 in Washington, DC ) was an American politician of the Republican Party, who represented the state of Illinois in the U.S. Senate.

Biography

After attending public schools in Chicago and New Trier High School in Winnetka, he studied at the University of Chicago, from which he graduated in 1941 with the graduation. He was then an employee of the company Bell & Howell before during the Second World War as a midshipman, he entered the service of the U.S. Navy in 1943 and was released in 1945 as a lieutenant. After the Second World War, he joined Bell & Howell back to 1949 and rose eventually to the president, CEO and Chairman of the manufacturer of film- technical equipment. He continued in this position until 1963.

1956 appointed him U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower to his personal representative with the rank of Special Ambassador to the investitures of the President of Bolivia, Hernán Siles Zuazo, on June 17 of 1956, and the President of Peru, Manuel Prado y Ugarteche, July 28 in 1956.

In 1964 he ran unsuccessfully against Democratic incumbent Otto Kerner for the office of Governor of Illinois. Two years later he was elected as a candidate of the Republican Party for U.S. Senator and had after his re- election in 1972 and 1978 of 3 January 1967 to 3 January 1985, the first Senate seat for Illinois ( Senator Class 2 ) holds. Most recently, he was during the first term of U.S. President Ronald Reagan from 1981 to 1985 chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations ). In 1984 he was defeated in the Senate elections, his Democratic challenger Paul M. Simon, a Member of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Then he returned to the private sector and not only was president of his own company, Charles Percy & Associates, Inc., but also on the boards of several foundations and committees. His daughter Sharon Percy since 1967 with Jay Rockefeller, former Governor and today's democratic U.S. Senator for West Virginia, married.

He died shortly before his 92nd birthday.