Tom Foley

Thomas Stephen "Tom" Foley ( born March 6, 1929 in Spokane, Washington; † October 18, 2013 in Washington, DC ) was an American politician of the Democratic Party.

Life

Foley attended Gonzaga High School in Spokane, where he made his degree in 1946. He then studied at the University of Washington in Seattle, where in 1951 he received his Bachelor of Arts, and in 1957 his Juris Doctor at the Law School of the University. After completing his studies, Foley began practicing as a lawyer. 1958 he was appointed deputy prosecutor of Spokane County. In addition, he was from 1958 to 1959 professor at the Law School Gonzaga University. In 1960, his appointment as assistant attorney general of the state of Washington. In 1964 he was elected as a Democrat to the 89th Congress. A total of four times re-elected, he represented his home state of 3 January 1965 to January 3, 1995 in the House of Representatives of the United States. During this time he served, among others, as Chairman of the Committee on Agriculture and was later on June 6, 1989 to January 3, 1995 Speaker of the House of Representatives of the United States. In 1994, he missed the re-election to Congress in which he became the first non re-elected Speaker of the Congress since 1860.

In 1995 he was appointed by Queen Elizabeth II as Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire. In 1997, he was President Bill Clinton to the United States Ambassador in Japan and this remained under his successor George W. Bush to April 2001.