Dick Thornburgh

Following an unsuccessful bid for the U.S. House of Representatives against William S. Moorhead in 1966, Thornburgh served as an elected delegate to the 1967–1968 Pennsylvania Constitutional Convention where he spearheaded efforts at judicial and local government reform. In 1969 President of the United States Richard Nixon appointed Thornburgh as the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania, where he earned a reputation as being tough on organized crime. In 1971, Thornburgh successfully took Pittsburgh steel companies to court for polluting rivers based on the 1899 Refuse Act. This was before the major environmental laws that are the backbone of the EPA were passed, and was a sign of what was to come.[4]

In 1975, President Gerald Ford appointed him to serve as the Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department's Criminal Division.[4] After two years at that post, Thornburgh returned to law practice in Pittsburgh and initiated a campaign for governor.

In 1978, Thornburgh launched a campaign for governor of Pennsylvania. He won the primary over six other contenders, including Arlen Specter, who had become well known as a former Democrat who switched parties and was elected the Philadelphia County district attorney in 1965 and the more conservative David W. Marston, a former U.S. attorney in Philadelphia, who was controversially dismissed in 1978 by the Jimmy Carter administration after Marston launched prosecution of two Democratic congressmen and two Democratic state legislators.

Despite a Democratic majority in the commonwealth, he and running mate Bill Scranton (whose father served as governor in the 1960s) defeated Pittsburgh mayor Pete Flaherty and his running mate, educator Bob Casey (who bears no relation to Robert P. Casey, the 42nd Governor of Pennsylvania). The victory was attributed in part to Thornburgh's campaign promises to crack down on government corruption, at a time when more than 60 persons in the Shapp administration were indicted on criminal charges. Thornburgh and Scranton were reelected in 1982. However, Scranton failed to win the governorship on his own in 1986.

Following the unprecedented 1979 Three Mile Island nuclear power plant accident near Harrisburg Pennsylvania, Governor Thornburgh was described by observers as "one of the few authentic heroes of that episode as a calm voice against panic." He oversaw emergency response efforts to the partial meltdown at the nuclear power plant and also had a major role in coordinating funding for cleanup efforts.[5]

Governor Thornburgh (center) with Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger (right) and Delaware Lt. Governor Mike Castle, July 1982.

He was widely recognized for economic development and the establishment of the Ben Franklin Partnership, and for implementing welfare reform programs. Pennsylvania's unemployment rate, among the ten highest in the nation when he was elected, was among the ten lowest when he left office as 50,000 new businesses and 500,000 new private sector jobs were created during his tenure.

Thornburgh was also responsible for consolidating all of Pennsylvania's state-owned colleges and universities into the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education. He also created the Governor's Schools, which were summer programs for talented and gifted high school students.

In January 1987, Governor Thornburgh was made an honorary Pennsylvania State Police Trooper and this honor was presented to him upon the graduation of the 64th Pennsylvania State Police Academy Class at Hershey, Pennsylvania.

Thornburgh was the first Republican to serve two successive terms as governor of the commonwealth. Recognized by fellow governors in a 1986 Newsweek poll as one of the most effective big-state governors in the nation.

By the time his role as Governor was completed, he had begun Pennsylvania's "War on the Incarcerated" by increasing the prison population 971, compared to Shapp before him at an increase of 147. Casey after him increased it again 1,634. And from then on until Corbett you do not see a decrease.

After leaving office in 1987, Thornburgh served as director of the Institute of Politics at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

In 1988, President Ronald Reagan appointed Thornburgh as the United States Attorney General and he was retained in office after President George H. W. Bush was inaugurated. Thornburgh was sworn into office after unanimous confirmation by the United States Senate and served three years as attorney general, 1988–1991.

Dick Thornburgh, 1978 Campaign

He mounted a vigorous attack on white-collar crime as the Department of Justice obtained a record number of convictions of savings and loan crisis and other securities officials, defense contractors and corrupt public officials. Thornburgh established strong ties with law enforcement agencies around the world to help combat drug trafficking, money laundering, terrorism and international white-collar crime. During his tenure as attorney general, he twice argued and won cases before the United States Supreme Court. The Legal Times noted that Thornburgh as Attorney General "built a reputation as one of the most effective champions that prosecutors have ever had." As honorary Special Agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, he chaired a panel of the National Academy of Public Administration examining the FBI's post-9/11 transformation process and was a member of the FBI Director's Advisory Board. He oversaw the major environmental litigation that resulted from the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989.

All told, Thornburgh served in the Justice Department under five Presidents, beginning in Pittsburgh when serving as United States Attorney, from 1969 to 1975.

He resigned as attorney general in 1991 to run for the U.S. Senate seat left vacant when Senator John Heinz was killed in a plane crash; major-party candidates were chosen by the party committees because it was too late for a primary. There was widespread speculation that Thornburgh had struck a deal with Democratic Pennsylvania Congressman and House Majority Whip William H. Gray. Gray had been the subject of an investigation into alleged campaign finance irregularities and a grand jury investigation into his church's financial dealings. It was reported that Gray would not run in the special election and in return Thornburgh would drop the investigation into him.[6][7][8][9][10] Gray did not run in the election and in fact resigned from Congress two months prior to it in order to take a job as President and CEO of the United Negro College Fund. Thornburgh was widely expected to win the seat; however, he was defeated in an upset by Democrat Harris Wofford, who had been the interim appointee to that seat. In 1993, Thornburgh's campaign committee was sued in federal court by Karl Rove, who won the case and collected $180,000 from the Thornburgh committee.

Thornburgh served a one-year appointment as Under-Secretary General at the United Nations (1992–1993) at the personal request of President Bush. This UN top management position put Thornburgh in charge of personnel, budget and finance matters. His Report to the Secretary-General of the United Nations was widely praised.[11] It pertained to reform, restructuring and streamlining efforts designed to make the United Nations peacekeeping, humanitarian and development programs more efficient and cost-effective.

The Dick Thornburgh Papers were donated to the University of Pittsburgh in 1998. The collection is housed in the university's Hillman Library where it is showcased in a themed reading room. The university also established the Dick Thornburgh Forum in Law and Public Policy in his honor.[15]

In April 2019, Thornburgh announced he was retiring from K&L Gates, the only private law firm with which he had ever been associated. The announcement came 60 years after Thornburgh first joined the firm.[16]