Lowell P. Weicker, Jr.

Lowell Palmer Weicker, Jr. ( born May 16, 1931 in Paris, France ) is an American politician and was a senator and governor of the U.S. state of Connecticut.

Career

Lowell P. Weicker, Jr., was born on May 16, 1931 in Paris, France. He graduated in 1953 at Yale University and in 1958 at the University of Virginia Law School. He was 1953-1955 in the United States Army, where he had the rank one First Lieutenant. He was then 1958-1964 in the Army Reserves. He also was in 1962 elected to the House of Representatives from Connecticut and then re-elected twice. He was elected to the U.S. Congress in 1968. After his session Weicker was elected in 1970 in the U.S. Senate, and re-elected in 1976 and 1982. In 1973 he was appointed to the Senate Watergate Committee, where he was also chairman and ranked as a Republican member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee. In the 1988 election he lost his seat to Joseph Lieberman. In 1990, he was, after leaving the Republican Party, the first independent to be elected to the office of the Governor of Connecticut. He also received the 1992 John F. Kennedy Profiles in Courage Award for his actions in the reform of Connecticut's tax structure.