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Senator George Stanley McGovern
 Senator
George McGovern, son of a Methodist minister, was born on July 19,
1922. He attended Dakota Wesleyan University, where he met
his future wife Eleanor Stegeberg. McGovern joined the military
in 1943 and flew B-24 bombers on 35 combat missions in Europe.
He then returned to college as a decorated war hero and graduated
in 1946.
McGovern then earned his Ph.D.
from Northwestern University, and returned to Wesleyan in 1950 to
become a professor of political science and history. He left
here in 1955 to help reinvigorate the South Dakota Democratic Party,
for which he was the executive secretary.
In 1960, he was appointed director
of the Food for Peace Program by President John F. Kennedy, where
he served until his resignation in 1962, when he won election to
the U.S. Senate, the first democrat in South Dakota to do so.
He was reelected to the Senate in 1968 and 1974 and served on the
Joint Economic Committee, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee,
and the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee.
He was also head of the Senate Select Committee on Nutrition and
Human Needs, which produced the respected "Dietary Goals for
the American People."
In 1972, McGovern ran unsuccessfully
for President of the United States against incumbent Richard Nixon.
His campaign was best known for its opposition to the Vietnam War.
McGovern's responsibilities have included UN delegate to the General
Assembly, UN delegate for the Special Session on Disarmament, president
of the Middle East Policy Council, Ambassador to the UN Food and
Agriculture Organization in Rome, and UN Global Ambassador on Hunger.
McGovern's long list of awards and recognitions also include the
highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which
President Clinton presented to him on August 9, 2000.
Senator McGovern, a decorated
pilot who flew frequent missions over Poland, has never discussed
the topic of the bombing of Auschwitz until this year, the 60th
anniversary of its liberation. His participation in this unique
event sponsored by the Holocaust and Humanity Education Center will
mark the first time that a WWII bomber pilot has sat down and spoken
with two people who survived this horrific camp. The politicians
decided not to bomb Auschwitz, but they never asked the opinions
of the men who were in the air above it.
McGovern is a war hero, a senator,
an advocate for the hungry, a champion of freedom, an exemplar of
loyalty and compassion, and a true symbol of the American way.
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http://www.mcgovernlibrary.com/george.htm (www.dwu.edu)http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=M000452
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