Stewart McKinney (politician)

Stewart Brett McKinney ( born January 30, 1931 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, † May 7, 1987 in Washington DC ) was an American politician. Between 1971 and 1987 he represented the state of Connecticut in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Career

Stewart McKinney attended until 1949, the Kent School in Kent (Connecticut). Then he studied until 1951 at Princeton University, and then to 1958 at Yale University. In between, he served from 1951 to 1955 as a sergeant in the U.S. Air Force. Politically, McKinney member of the Republican Party. Between 1966 and 1970 he sat as an MP in the House of Representatives from Connecticut; From 1969, he led there, the Republican faction. He was also director of two hospitals in Bridgeport and a rehabilitation center in Fairfield County. McKinney was also a member of the Chamber of Commerce of Bridgeport. In the years 1968 to 1970, he attended the Republican party days in Connecticut as a delegate. In 1972 he was a delegate to the Republican National Convention in Miami Beach, was nominated to the President Richard Nixon for a second term.

In the congressional elections of 1970, McKinney was elected in the fourth electoral district of Connecticut in the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington, where he became the successor of Lowell P. Weicker on January 3, 1971. After eight re- election he was able to implement his mandate in Congress until his death on 7 May 1987. In this time were, among other things, the Watergate scandal and the end of the Vietnam War. McKinney was known in Congress by the McKinney - Vento Homeless Assistance Act. He was also a member of the Special Committee to Investigate of assassinations ( Select Committee on Assassinations ).

McKinney was married to Lucie Cunningham, daughter of racing driver Briggs Cunningham. The son John is now a state senator in Connecticut. Stewart McKinney died as the first congressman from AIDS. A nature reserve in Connecticut bears since 1987 in his honor the name of Stewart B. McKinney National Wildlife Refuge.