George Stanley McGOVERN, Congress, SD (1922)

McGOVERN George Stanley , a Representative and a Senator from South Dakota; born in Avon, Bon Homme County, S.Dak., July 19, 1922; attended the public schools of Mitchell, S.Dak., and Dakota Wesleyan University, 1940-1942; enlisted in the United States Army Air Corps in June 1942, flew combat missions in the European Theater, and was discharged from the service in July 1945; returned to Dakota Wesleyan University and graduated in 1946; held teaching assistantship and fellowship at Northwestern University, Evanston, Ill., 1948-1950, receiving his Ph.D. from that university in 1953; professor of history and government at Dakota Wesleyan University 1950-1953; executive secretary of South Dakota Democratic Party 1953-1956; member of Advisory Committee on Political Organization of Democratic National Committee 1954-1956; elected as a Democrat to the Eighty-fifth and Eighty-sixth Congresses (January 3, 1957-January 3, 1961); was not a candidate for renomination in 1960, but was unsuccessful for election to the United States Senate; appointed special assistant to the President January 20, 1961, as director of the Food for Peace Program, and served until his resignation July 18, 1962, to become a candidate for the United States Senate; elected to the United States Senate in 1962; reelected in 1968 and 1974 and served from January 3, 1963, to January 3, 1981; chairman, Select Committee on Unmet Basic Needs (Ninetieth Congress), Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs (Ninety-first through Ninety-fifth Congresses); unsuccessful candidate for reelection to the U.S. Senate in 1980; unsuccessful candidate for Democratic presidential nomination in 1968 and 1984; unsuccessful Democratic nominee for President of the United States in 1972; lecturer and teacher; U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Food and Agricultural Agencies in Rome, Italy, 1998-2001; awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom on August 9, 2000; appointed United Nations Global Ambassador on World Hunger in 2001; died October 21, 2012; interment in Rock Creek Cemetery, Washington, D.C..

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present