
Pete McCloskey
September 29, 1927 - May 8, 2024
Pete McCloskey - a pro-environment, anti-war California Republican who co-wrote the Endangered Species Act and co-founded Earth Day - has died. He was 96.
A fourth-generation Republican "in the mold of Teddy Roosevelt," he often said, McCloskey represented the 12th Congressional District for 15 years, running for president against an incumbent Richard Nixon in 1972. He battled party leaders while serving seven terms in Congress and went on to publicly disavow the GOP in his later years.
Years after leaving Washington, McCloskey made one last bid for elective office in 2006 when he challenged Richard Pombo of Northern California's 11th District in a primary race that McCloskey described as "a battle for the soul of the Republican Party," After losing to Pombo, who had spent most of his tenure in Washington attempting to undo the Endangered Species Act, he threw his support behind Democrat Jerry McNerney, the eventual winner. McCloskey cited disillusionment from influence peddling and ethics scandals under the George W Bush administration as reasons why he switched parties in 2007 at the age of 79.
Born in Loma Linda, California as Paul Norton McCloskey Jr, he graduated from South Pasadena High School, where the second baseman made the school's baseball hall of fame, although he self-deprecatingly called him "perhaps the worst player on the baseball team." He joined the Marine Corps as an officer and led a rifle platoon during some of the most intense fighting of the Korean War. He was awarded the Navy Cross for extraordinary heroism, the nation's second-highest honor, a Silver Star for bravery in combat and two Purple Hearts. He earned a law degree from Stanford University and founded an environmental law firm in Palo Alto before making the move to public office. In 1967, he defeated fellow Republican Shirley Temple Black and Democrat Roy Archibald in a special election for the San Mateo County congressional seat.
While in office, McCloskey also was known for befriending Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and criticized Israeli influence on American politics. The congressman was the first to demand Nixon's impeachment, and the first to demand a repeal of the Gulf of Tonkin resolution that allowed the Vietnam War. But his enduring legacy is the Endangered Species Act, which protects species designated as endangered or threatened and conserves the ecosystems on which they depend. McCloskey co-wrote the legislation in 1973, after a campaign by young people empowered by Earth Day activities successfully unseated seven of 12 Congress members known as 'The Dirty Dozen' for their anti-environment votes.
McCloskey is survived by his wife, Helen - his longtime press secretary whom he married in 1978 - and four children by his first wife: Nancy, Peter, John, and Kathleen.
AP News, May 9, 2024
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Bill Zeile (1973)
A lengthy obituary in the San Francisco Chronicle mentions that Pete McCloskey was the valedictorian for the SPHS graduating class of 1945; in his speech, he spoke in support of the formation of the United Nations.