John O. Pastore

John Pastore
John Pastore
United States Senator ; from Rhode Island
	In office; December 19, 1950 –December 28, 1976
Preceded by	Edward L. Leahy
Succeeded by	John Chafee
61st Governor of Rhode Island
	In office; October 6, 1945 –December 19, 1950
Lieutenant	John S. McKiernan
Preceded by	J. Howard McGrath
Succeeded by	John S. McKiernan
Lieutenant Governor of Rhode Island
	In office; January 1945 –October 6, 1945
Governor	J. Howard McGrath
Preceded by	Louis Cappelli
Succeeded by	John S. McKiernan
Personal details
Born	John Orlando Pastore; March 17, 1907; Providence, Rhode Island, U.S.
Died	July 15, 2000 (aged 93); Cranston, Rhode Island, U.S.
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	Elena Caito
Children	3
Education	Northeastern University (LLB)

Last updated April 12, 2019

John Orlando Pastore (March 17, 1907 –July 15, 2000) was an American lawyer and politician. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as a United States Senator from Rhode Island from 1950 to 1976. He previously served as the 61st Governor of Rhode Island from 1945 to 1950. He was the first Italian American to be elected as a senator.^[1]

The United States of America (USA), commonly known as the United States or America, is a country composed of 50 states, a federal district, five major self-governing territories, and various possessions. At 3.8 million square miles, the United States is the world's third or fourth largest country by total area and is slightly smaller than the entire continent of Europe's 3.9 million square miles. With a population of over 327 million people, the U.S. is the third most populous country. The capital is Washington, D.C., and the largest city by population is New York City. Forty-eight states and the capital's federal district are contiguous in North America between Canada and Mexico. The State of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east and across the Bering Strait from Russia to the west. The State of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U.S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, stretching across nine official time zones. The extremely diverse geography, climate, and wildlife of the United States make it one of the world's 17 megadiverse countries.

The Democratic Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. Tracing its heritage back to Thomas Jefferson and James Madison's Democratic-Republican Party, the modern-day Democratic Party was founded around 1828 by supporters of Andrew Jackson, making it the world's oldest active political party.

The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, which along with the United States House of Representatives—the lower chamber—comprises the legislature of the United States. The Senate chamber is located in the north wing of the Capitol, in Washington, D.C.

Early life and education

John Pastore was born in the Federal Hill neighborhood of Providence, Rhode Island.^[1] The second of five children, he was the son of Michele and Erminia (née Asprinio) Pastore, who were Italian immigrants.^[2] His father, a tailor who had moved from Potenza to the United States in 1899, died when John was nine, and his mother went to work as a seamstress to support the family.^[3] She married her late husband's brother, Salvatore, who also ran a tailoring business.^[2] As a child, Pastore worked delivering coats and suits for his uncle/stepfather, as an errand boy in a law office, and as a foot-press operator in a jewelry factory.^[2]

Federal Hill, Providence, Rhode Island neighborhood in Providence

The Federal Hill neighborhood has a salient role in the history of Providence due to its central location within the city. This part of Providence is best known for its Italian American community and abundance of Italian restaurants.

Providence is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. It was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams, a Reformed Baptist theologian and religious exile from the Massachusetts Bay Colony. He named the area in honor of "God's merciful Providence" which he believed was responsible for revealing such a haven for him and his followers. The city is situated at the mouth of the Providence River at the head of Narragansett Bay.

Rhode Island, officially the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, is a state in the New England region of the United States. It is the smallest state in area, the seventh least populous, the second most densely populated, and it has the longest official name of any state. Rhode Island is bordered by Connecticut to the west, Massachusetts to the north and east, and the Atlantic Ocean to the south via Rhode Island Sound and Block Island Sound. It also shares a small maritime border with New York. Providence is the state capital and most populous city in Rhode Island.

Pastore graduated with honors from Classical High School in 1925, and spent a year working a $15-a-week job as a claims adjuster for the Narragansett Electric Company.^[1] In 1927, he enrolled in an evening law course given by Northeastern University at the Young Men's Christian Association in Providence.^[3] He received a Bachelor of Laws degree (equivalent to a modern J.D. degree) in 1931, and was admitted to the bar the following year.^[4] He then established a law office in the basement of his family's home, but attracted few clients due to the Great Depression.^[1]

Classical High School, founded in 1843, is a public magnet school in the Providence School District, in Providence, Rhode Island. It was originally an all-male school but has since become co-ed. Classical's motto is Certare, Petere, Reperire, Neque Cedere, a Latin translation of the famous phrase taken from Tennyson's poem "Ulysses", "To Strive, to Seek, to Find, and Not to Yield". It has been rated "High Performing and Sustaining" by its performance in 2005 on the New Standards Reference Exam, placing third in the state. The school also made Newsweek's America's Best High Schools of 2012 with a 99% graduation rate, 95% college bound, an average SAT score of 1578, and an average AP score of 2.8. Classical High School stands roughly at the intersection of the Federal Hill, West End, and Upper South Providence neighborhoods.

National Grid plc is a British multinational electricity and gas utility company headquartered in Warwick, United Kingdom. Its principal activities are in the United Kingdom and Northeastern United States. It has a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange, and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. It has a secondary listing on the New York Stock Exchange.

Northeastern University is a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts, established in 1898. It is categorized as an R1 institution by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. The university offers undergraduate and graduate programs on its main campus in the Fenway-Kenmore, Roxbury, South End, and Back Bay neighborhoods of Boston. The university has satellite campuses in Charlotte, North Carolina; Seattle, Washington; San Jose, California; and Toronto, Canada, that exclusively offer graduate degrees. Northeastern recently purchased the New College of the Humanities in London and plans to open an additional campus in Vancouver, Canada. The university's enrollment is approximately 18,000 undergraduate students and 8,000 graduate students.

Early political career

In 1934, Pastore was elected as a Democrat to the Rhode Island House of Representatives.^[4] He was re-elected in 1936, and became chairman of the House Corporations Committee.^[2] He served as an assistant attorney general from 1937 until 1938, when he lost that position after the Republican Party swept several statewide offices.^[1] He then served as a member of the Providence Charter Revision Commission from 1939 to 1940.^[4]

The Rhode Island House of Representatives is the lower house of the Rhode Island General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Rhode Island, the upper house being the Rhode Island Senate. It is composed of 75 members, elected to two year terms from 75 districts of equal population. The Rhode Island General Assembly does not have term limits. The House meets at the Rhode Island State Capitol in Providence.

The Republican Party, also referred to as the GOP, is one of the two major political parties in the United States; the other is its historic rival, the Democratic Party.

When the Democratic Party returned to power in 1940, Pastore was appointed assistant attorney general in charge of the criminal calendar, serving in that position until 1944.^[2] In July 1941, he married Elena Caito, to whom he remained married until his death; the couple had one son and two daughters.^[3]

Governor of Rhode Island

Pastore was elected Lieutenant Governor of Rhode Island in 1944.^[4] On October 6, 1945, he succeeded to the office of Governor of Rhode Island when Governor J. Howard McGrath resigned to become U.S. Solicitor General under President Harry S. Truman.^[2] During his first year in office, he established a one-percent sales tax.^[5]

James Howard McGrath was an American politician and attorney from the U.S. state of Rhode Island. McGrath, a Democrat, served as U.S. Attorney for Rhode Island before becoming Governor, U.S. Solicitor General, U.S. Senator, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, and Attorney General of the United States.

The President of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces.

Harry S. Truman was the 33rd president of the United States from 1945 to 1953, succeeding upon the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt after serving as vice president. He implemented the Marshall Plan to rebuild the economy of Western Europe, and established the Truman Doctrine and NATO.

In 1946, Pastore was elected to a full term as governor after defeating his Republican opponent, John G. Murphy, by a margin of 54%-46%.^[4] With his victory, he became the first Italian American to be elected a governor in the United States; Charles Poletti, who served as Governor of New York in December 1942, also succeeded to office but never sought election in his own right.^[1] He was re-elected in 1948, defeating Warwick mayor Albert P. Ruerat by 61%-38%.^[4] During his tenure, he enacted the state's first primary election law and corporate income tax.^[5] He also created a program to combat water pollution and a $20 million bonus for World War II veterans.^[5] As chairman of the New England Governors' Conference, he called for a uniform nationwide unemployment insurance tax, either through "federalization of the program or some form of federal reinsurance".^[2]

U.S. Senate

In 1950, Pastore was elected to the United States Senate as a Democrat in a special election to succeed – once again, albeit for a different office – J. Howard McGrath, who had resigned in 1949 to become United States Attorney General (Edward L. Leahy held the office during a 16-month interim appointment). Pastore was re-elected in 1952, 1958, 1964, and 1970.^[1]

In the summer of 1964, Pastore delivered the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City, New Jersey, which nominated Lyndon B. Johnson for the presidency.^[1]

Pastore won his final senate race in 1970 by a 68%–32% margin over John McLaughlin, a Catholic priest who did not support the Vietnam War. McLaughlin, who later left the priesthood, became more famous as the host of the television program The McLaughlin Group .^[6]

In 1976, Pastore retired, living in Cranston until his death due to kidney failure on July 15, 2000.^[7]

Pastore served as the chairman of United States Senate Subcommittee on Communications. He is probably best remembered for taking part in a 1969 hearing involving a $20 million grant for the funding of PBS and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which was proposed by former President Lyndon Johnson. President Richard Nixon had wanted to cut the proposed funding to $10 million due to the demands of the Vietnam War, and Fred Rogers, host of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood , appeared before the committee to argue for the full $20 million. In about six minutes of testimony, Rogers spoke of the need for social and emotional education that public television provided. Pastore was not familiar with Rogers' work, and was sometimes described as gruff and impatient. However, he told Rogers that the testimony had given him goose bumps, and after Rogers recited the lyrics to "What Do You Do with the Mad that You Feel?", one of the songs from his show, Pastore finally declared: "I think it's wonderful. I think it's wonderful. Looks like you just earned the $20 million."^[8]^[9] The following year's appropriation increased PBS funding from $9 million to $22 million.^[10]

Legacy

Senator Pastore and his wife Elena had three children and eight grandchildren. The Senator's keynote speech at the 1964 Democratic National Convention has been called "The Speech Heard Round the World". The late Ted Kennedy eulogized: "My brother Jack had thought the world of him...John had a great heart."^[11] Senator Pastore's private funeral service was held shortly after his death in 2000, in Cranston, Rhode Island.^[12]

Additionally, The University of Rhode Island's Pastore Hall, completed in 1953, is named after John Pastore. This building was initially home to the university's Department of Chemistry.^[13]

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References

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Goldstein, Richard (2000-07-17). "John Pastore, Prominent Figure in Rhode Island Politics for Three Decades, Dies at 93". The New York Times .
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Current Biography Yearbook. New York: H.W. Wilson Company. 1954.
1 2 3 "John Pastore; Senator From Rhode Island". Los Angeles Times . 2000-07-17.
1 2 3 4 5 6 "PASTORE, John Orlando, (1907 - 2000)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress .
1 2 3 "Rhode Island Governor John Orlando Pastore". National Governors Association .
↑ Jensen, Elizabeth (Aug 16, 2016). "John McLaughlin, TV Host Who Made Combat of Punditry, Dies at 89". New York Times. Retrieved 2016-08-16.
↑ http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=P000100
↑ Fred Rogers Center: Video of Mr. Rogers' testimony. Retrieved on 2013-07-05 from http://exhibit.fredrogerscenter.org/advocacy-for-children/videos/view/969/.
↑ PBS KIDS (2017-03-19), MISTER ROGERS' NEIGHBORHOOD | 1969 Senate Hearing | PBS KIDS , retrieved 2018-06-12
↑ "Senate Committee Hearing". Fred Rogers Beyond the Neighborhood. Fred Rogers Center. 1969. Retrieved 27 May 2014.
↑ Edward M. Kennedy (2009). True Compass: A Memoir. New York: Hachette Book Group. ISBN 978-0-446-56421-2.
↑ "Senator Pastore Funeral Service". C-SPAN. 2000. Retrieved 28 Dec 2016.
↑ "University of Rhode Island celebrates official opening of Beaupre Center for Chemical and Forensic Sciences". today.uri.edu. Retrieved 2018-10-11.

Political offices
Preceded by Louis Cappelli	Lieutenant Governor of Rhode Island 1945	Succeeded by John S. McKiernan
Preceded by J. Howard McGrath	Governor of Rhode Island 1945–1950	Succeeded by John S. McKiernan
Party political offices
Preceded by J. Howard McGrath	Democratic nominee for Governor of Rhode Island 1946, 1948	Succeeded by Dennis J. Roberts
Preceded by J. Howard McGrath	Democratic nominee for U.S. Senator from Rhode Island (Class 1) 1950, 1952, 1958, 1964, 1970	Succeeded by Richard Lorber
Preceded by Frank Church	Keynote Speaker of the Democratic National Convention 1964	Succeeded by Daniel Inouye
U.S. Senate
Preceded by Edward L. Leahy	U.S. Senator (Class 1) from Rhode Island 1950–1976 Served alongside: Theodore F. Green, Claiborne Pell	Succeeded by John Chafee

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Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
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[nytimes-1] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Goldstein, Richard (2000-07-17). "John Pastore, Prominent Figure in Rhode Island Politics for Three Decades, Dies at 93". The New York Times .

[yearbook-2] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Current Biography Yearbook. New York: H.W. Wilson Company. 1954.

[latimes-3] 1 2 3 "John Pastore; Senator From Rhode Island". Los Angeles Times . 2000-07-17.

[congress-4] 1 2 3 4 5 6 "PASTORE, John Orlando, (1907 - 2000)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress .

[nga-5] 1 2 3 "Rhode Island Governor John Orlando Pastore". National Governors Association .

[mclaughlin-obituary-6] Jensen, Elizabeth (Aug 16, 2016). "John McLaughlin, TV Host Who Made Combat of Punditry, Dies at 89". New York Times. Retrieved 2016-08-16.

[7] ttp://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=P000100

[8] Fred Rogers Center: Video of Mr. Rogers' testimony. Retrieved on 2013-07-05 from http://exhibit.fredrogerscenter.org/advocacy-for-children/videos/view/969/.

[9] PBS KIDS (2017-03-19), MISTER ROGERS' NEIGHBORHOOD | 1969 Senate Hearing | PBS KIDS , retrieved 2018-06-12

[RogersTestimony-10] "Senate Committee Hearing". Fred Rogers Beyond the Neighborhood. Fred Rogers Center. 1969. Retrieved 27 May 2014.

[KennedyMemoir-11] Edward M. Kennedy (2009). True Compass: A Memoir. New York: Hachette Book Group. ISBN 978-0-446-56421-2.

[CSPANFuneral-12] "Senator Pastore Funeral Service". C-SPAN. 2000. Retrieved 28 Dec 2016.

[13] "University of Rhode Island celebrates official opening of Beaupre Center for Chemical and Forensic Sciences". today.uri.edu. Retrieved 2018-10-11.

v t e United States Senators from Rhode Island
Class 1	Foster Potter Howland Malbone Champlin Hunter DeWolf Robbins Dixon I Sprague III Francis A. Greene James Simmons Arnold Sprague IV Burnside Aldrich Lippitt Gerry Hebert Gerry McGrath Leahy Pastore J. Chafee L. Chafee Whitehouse
Class 2	Stanton Bradford R. Greene Ellery Fenner Mathewson Howell Burrill Knight Simmons Clarke Allen Anthony Sheffield Chace Dixon III Wetmore Colt Metcalf Green Pell Reed

John Pastore


United States Senator from Rhode Island
In office December 19, 1950 –December 28, 1976
Preceded by	Edward L. Leahy
Succeeded by	John Chafee
61st Governor of Rhode Island
In office October 6, 1945 –December 19, 1950
Lieutenant	John S. McKiernan
Preceded by	J. Howard McGrath
Succeeded by	John S. McKiernan
Lieutenant Governor of Rhode Island
In office January 1945 –October 6, 1945
Governor	J. Howard McGrath
Preceded by	Louis Cappelli
Succeeded by	John S. McKiernan

Personal details
Born	John Orlando Pastore (1907-03-17)March 17, 1907 Providence, Rhode Island, U.S.
Died	July 15, 2000(2000-07-15) (aged 93) Cranston, Rhode Island, U.S.
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	Elena Caito
Children	3
Education	Northeastern University (LLB)