| Floyd Haskell | |
|---|---|
| |
| United States Senator from Colorado | |
In office January 3, 1973 – January 3, 1979 | |
| Preceded by | Gordon Allott |
| Succeeded by | William L. Armstrong |
| Member of the Colorado House of Representatives | |
In office 1965-1969 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Floyd Kirk Haskell February 7, 1916 Morristown, New Jersey |
| Died | August 25, 1998 (aged 82) Washington, D.C. |
| Political party | Republican (before 1970) Democratic (1970–1998) |
| Spouse(s) | Eileen Nicoll (1941-1976; divorced; 3 children) Nina Totenberg (1979-1998; his death) |
| Alma mater | Harvard University |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance | United States |
| Service/branch |  United States Army
|
| Years of service | 1941-1945 |
| Rank | Major |
| Battles/wars | World War II |
Floyd Kirk Haskell (February 7, 1916 – August 25, 1998) was an American lawyer and politician. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as a U.S. Senator from Colorado from 1973 to 1979.
Early life and career[]
Floyd Haskell was born in Morristown, New Jersey, to Edward Kirk and Gladys (née Clarkson) Haskell.[1] His father was an investment banker.[2] He attended Harvard University, where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1937.[3] During college, he played on the football, rugby, and soccer teams and was president of the Rocky Mountain Club.[4][5][6] He received a law degree from Harvard Law School in 1941.[3] That same year he married Eileen Nicoll, to whom he remained married until their divorce in 1976; they had three daughters, Ione, Evelyn, and Pamela.[7]
During World War II, Haskell served in the U.S. Army from 1941 to 1945, seeing action in Asia and reaching the rank of major.[3] He was awarded a Bronze Star Medal for his intelligence work.[7] Following his military service, he was admitted to the bar in 1946 and moved to Denver, Colorado, where he worked as a tax lawyer.[2]
In 1964, Haskell was elected as a Republican to the Colorado House of Representatives from Arapahoe County, serving until 1969.[3] As a state legislator, he became assistant majority leader in 1967 and also served as chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and a member of the House Education and Finance Committees.[7] In 1970, he left the Republican Party and became a Democrat in protest of President Richard Nixon's invasion of Cambodia.[2]
U.S. Senate[]
In 1972, Haskell decided to challenge three-term Republican incumbent Gordon L. Allott for a seat in the U.S. Senate. He defeated state Senator Anthony Vollack (later chief justice of the Colorado Supreme Court) in the Democratic primary.[8] In the general election, he narrowly won[9][10] a four-way race between Allott[11] and candidates from the Raza Unida Party[12] and the American Independent Party,[13] receiving only 49% of the vote.[10][14] He defeated his closest competitor, Senator Allott, by less than 10,000 votes while President Nixon carried Colorado by over 267,000 votes.[10]
Haskell was sworn into the Senate on January 3, 1973.[3] He served as a member of the Senate Finance and Energy and Natural Resources Committees, where he earned a reputation as a tax reformer and advocate for the environment.[2] He supported the regulation of auto emissions, the Panama Canal treaties, and alternative sources of energy.[15] In 1978, he was defeated for re-election by Representative and future Colorado Christian University president William L. Armstrong, losing by a margin of 59%-40%.[16]
Later life and death[]
After his Senate career, Haskell established his residence in Washington, D.C., where he practiced law before joining Common Cause and a bipartisan group of retired lawmakers calling for campaign finance reform and an end to congressional gridlock.[15] In 1979, he married Nina Totenberg, the legal affairs correspondent for National Public Radio; they remained married until his death in 1998.[7]
Haskell suffered a cerebral hemorrhage in 1994 after falling on ice near his home in Washington.[15] He died of pneumonia four years later, at age 82, while returning from a vacation in Maine with his wife.[2]
References[]
- ↑ "Unkelbach, Evelyn Cary". Hartford Courant. March 25, 2005. http://articles.courant.com/2005-03-25/news/0503240793_1_evie-labrador-retrievers-dog-magazines.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Alvarez, Lizette (August 26, 1998). "Floyd Haskell, 82, Ex-Senator From Colorado". The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/1998/08/26/us/floyd-haskell-82-ex-senator-from-colorado.html.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 "HASKELL, Floyd Kirk, (1916 - 1998)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=H000317.
- ↑ "CRIMSON SOCCER TEAM TREKS TO JUNGLELAND". The Harvard Crimson. November 9, 1935. http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1935/11/9/crimson-soccer-team-treks-to-jungleland/?print=1.
- ↑ "Listing of Harvard Clubs". The Harvard Crimson. June 21, 1951. http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1951/6/21/listing-of-harvard-clubs-pblondon-clubb/?print=1.
- ↑ "Lining Them Up". The Harvard Crimson. October 22, 1935. http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1935/10/22/lining-them-up-ptheyre-taking-their.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 "MEMORIALIZING FORMER UNITED STATES SENATOR AND STATE REPRESENTATIVE FLOYD K. HASKELL". Colorado General Assembly. http://www.state.co.us/gov_dir/leg_dir/sess1999/hres99/hjm1001.htm.
- ↑ Rosenthal, Jack (September 10, 1972). "Primary Season Stretches On, With 9 More Tuesday". The New York Times.
- ↑ 457,545
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 "Statistics of the Presidential and Congressional Election of November 7, 1972". Clerk of the United States House of Representatives. http://clerk.house.gov/member_info/electionInfo/1972election.pdf.
- ↑ 447,957
- ↑ 13,228
- ↑ 7,353
- ↑ "United States Congressional Elections 1972 - Colorado". http://theelectionsgeek.com/post/138472894653/united-states-congressional-elections-1972. Retrieved October 12, 2018.
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 "Floyd Haskell Dies". The Washington Post. August 26, 1998. https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/campaigns/junkie/links/haskell.htm.
- ↑ "Statistics of the Congressional Election of November 7, 1978". Clerk of the United States House of Representatives. http://clerk.house.gov/member_info/electionInfo/1978election.pdf.
External links[]
- Appearances on C-SPAN
The original article can be found at Floyd Haskell and the edit history here.