William Donald Schaefer

William Donald Schaefer ( born November 2, 1921 in Baltimore, Maryland, † April 18, 2011 in Catonsville, Baltimore County, Maryland ) was an American politician. He was from 1987 to 1995 Governor of the State of Maryland.

Early years and political rise

Schaefer attended elementary school in his hometown of Baltimore, and from then until 1939, the Baltimore City College. He then studied at the University of Baltimore Law. His education was interrupted by the Second World War, in which he took part as an officer in the U.S. Army. He was between 1942 and 1945 in the administration of military hospitals in England and other European countries. Schaefer remained until 1979 a member of the military reserve and brought it there until the colonel.

After the war he became a lawyer in Baltimore. He joined the Democratic Party and unsuccessfully applied for each in the years 1950 and 1954 to a seat in the House of Representatives from Maryland. In 1955 he was elected to the City Council of Baltimore, whose chairman he was in 1967. Between 1971 and 1987 he was mayor of Baltimore. During his tenure, was the first African American police chief of this city with Bishop L. Robinson.

Governor of Maryland

In 1986, Schaefer was elected Governor of Maryland. He took up his new post on 21 January 1987, and it could pursue in the office after a re-election in 1990 to the 18th January 1995. During his tenure, the Oriole Park, a stadium in Baltimore, was built. At public schools, the standards have been upgraded. At that time, was also an electrified railway, the improved local transport around Baltimore. Despite his affiliation to the Democratic Party, he supported the presidential elections in 1992 the Republican candidate George Bush against Bill Clinton.

After the end of his governorship Schaefer was up again in 1999 legally worked for a large law firm. In 1999 he applied then to the position as head of the Court of Maryland ( State Comptroller ). This office of the previously deceased in Louis L. Goldstein had held since 1959. Schaefer sat down significantly to Republican Mark Epstein by and was still equipped as a former governor with great popularity, re-elected in 2002 by a large majority. In 2006, he sought a third term in, but lost the Democratic primary against the later victorious even in the actual election Peter Franchot and thus retired from political life.