Charles H Percy

Early life and education

Charles Harting Percy was born in Pensacola, the seat of Escambia County in far northwestern Florida, the son of Edward H. Percy and the former Elizabeth Harting. His father, an Alabama native descended from illustrious colonial-era Mississippians and Virginians, was at various times an automobile salesman and bank cashier. His Illinois-born mother was a concert violinist. Edward was a son of Charles Brown Percy and Helen Leila Herndon of the powerful Herndon family of Virginia. Elizabeth Harting was a daughter of Phineas Fredrick Harting and Belle Aschenbach.

The family moved to Chicago when Percy was an infant. As a child, he was notable for his entrepreneurial energy and held jobs while attending school. In the mid-1930s, his pluck brought him to the attention of his Sunday school teacher, Joseph McNabb, the president of Bell & Howell, then a small camera company.

Percy completed high school at New Trier High School. He entered the University of Chicago on a half tuition scholarship, and worked his way through college with several part-time jobs. He completed his degree in Economics in 1941.

Career

Percy started at Bell & Howell in 1938 as an apprentice and sales trainee while he was still in college. In 1939 he worked at Crowell Collier.

He returned to Bell & Howell in 1941 to work full-time after graduating from the University of Chicago. Astute at business, within a year he was appointed a director of the company. Percy served three years in the United States Navy during World War II and returned to the company in 1945.

In 1949, the Jaycees named Percy one of the "Outstanding Young Men in America", along with Gerald R. Ford Jr., of Michigan, future U.S. President, and John Ben Shepperd, future Texas Attorney General.

After Joseph McNabb died in 1949, Percy was made the president of Bell & Howell. He was instrumental in leading the company during a period of financial success and growth. During his leadership, Percy expanded Bell & Howell, raising revenues 32-fold and the number of employees 12-fold, and listing the company on the New York Stock Exchange. While continuing to manufacture movie cameras and movie and sound projectors for military, commercial, and home use, in the late 1940s the company diversified into the production of microfilm. It later entered the rapidly expanding markets of information services as well.

Political career

In the late 1950s, Percy decided to enter politics. With the encouragement of then U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower, Percy helped to write Decisions for a Better America, which proposed a set of long-range goals for the Republican Party. He belonged to the moderate and liberal wing of the Republican party, led by Eisenhower during his presidency and later closely identified with New York Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller. Percy hoped to broaden the base of the party.

Percy first entered electoral politics with a run for governor of Illinois in 1964, which he narrowly lost to Democratic incumbent Otto Kerner. During his gubernatorial campaign, Percy reluctantly endorsed conservative Republican presidential nominee Barry Goldwater, his future Senate colleague. Goldwater fared poorly in Illinois and throughout the country.

U.S. Senate

In 1966, Percy ran for senator from Illinois. His 21-year-old daughter Valerie was murdered at the family home in September, late in the campaign. Her death was thought to have been by an intruder, but the crime was never solved despite a lengthy investigation.

Percy and his opponent both suspended campaigning for a couple of weeks following Valerie's death. He upset Democratic Senator Paul Douglas (a former professor of Percy's at the University of Chicago) with 56 percent of the vote.

After Percy appeared on the Television show "Face The Nation" on Sunday 15th January 1967 with the other newly elected Republican Senators, the then President Lyndon Johnson noted privately that he thought Percy would make a fine President if the opportunity should ever arise.

In 1967, Senator Percy introduced a bill to establish a program to stimulate production of low-cost housing. Percy's proposal was the first of its kind to provide home ownership to low-income families, and it received strong support from Republicans in both the House and the Senate, although it ultimately did not pass. When asked why he selected housing for his first major legislative proposal, Percy said: "Of all the problems I ran across during three years of campaigning, first for the governorship and then for the Senate, the most appalling in their consequences for the future seemed to be the problems of the declining areas of the city and countryside, the inadequacy of housing."

When in the Senate less than two years, Percy was mentioned as a Republican hopeful for the 1968 Presidential nomination. The New York Times columnist James B. Reston referred to him as "the hottest political article in the Republican Party”.

In 1972, Percy sought a second term to the Senate. In the general election, he defeated Congressman Roman Pucinski by a landslide. He gave up his seat on the important Senate Appropriations Committee for one on the Foreign Relations Committee.

In 1978, as Percy was completing his second term, he appeared invincible. Percy was considered so strong that the Democratic Party was unable to persuade any serious candidates to challenge him. Alex Seith, a dark horse candidate, was his Democratic challenger. Seith had never before sought elected office but had served as an appointee on the Cook County Zoning Board of Appeals for twelve years, nine as chairman.

At that time, Percy's reputation as a moderate Rockefeller Republican, contrasted with Seith's ostensible hard-line foreign policy positions, combined to make Percy suddenly vulnerable in the weeks before the election. Percy had earlier worked to broaden the base of the Republican Party and was an outlier to more conservative elements. Sensing his probable loss, Percy went on television days before the polling and, with tear-filled eyes, pleaded with Illinois voters to give him another chance. He said, "I got your message and you're right... I'm sure that I've made my share of mistakes, but your priorities are mine." He won re-election 53% to Seith's 46%.

After the Republicans won control of the Senate in 1980, Percy became chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee. He served in the Senate until the end of his third term in January 1985, after narrowly losing to Congressman Paul Simon in 1984. Critics had accused Percy of paying more attention to foreign affairs than to the domestic issues of his constituents. After Percy's defeat, no Republican would win a senatorial race in Illinois until Peter Fitzgerald in 1998.

In 2006, writing about the influence of political lobbies on the U.S. relationship with Israel, political theorists John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt wrote that they believed Percy's loss was the result of a campaign waged against him by the powerful American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). The lobbying group controlled substantial monies and helped lawmakers who they believed supported the security of Israel. Earlier that year, Percy and the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Dante Fascell, expressed sympathy for the cause of Karl Linnas, a former concentration camp commander who was to be deported from Pennsylvania to Estonia, having lied in the papers he used to enter the United States. Linnas was found to have ordered, and participated in, the murders of Jews and other prisoners. Percy's view, shared by Fascell, Representative Donald L. Ritter of Pennsylvania, and the Helsinki Commission, was that Linnas should be deported, but not to the Soviet Union.

While in the Senate, Percy was active in business and international affairs. Although he explored the possibility of running for President in both 1968 and 1976, he did not run either time. During the early 1970s, he clashed with President Nixon and criticized the U.S. conduct of the Vietnam War.

In 1977, Percy and Sen. Hubert H. Humphrey—responding to the 1973 OPEC oil embargo and high energy prices in general—created the Alliance to Save Energy to encourage a national commitment to energy efficiency. Percy was the founding chairman of the organization.

Percy was mentioned again for the presidency in 1980 and 1988, but his candidacies did not progress beyond the exploratory stage.

Perhaps Percy's most important act, and his longest-lasting legacy, was ending the practice of nominating federal judges from a pool of candidates generated by the Chicago political machine. He implemented a system of consultation with, and advice from, groups of legal experts, including the professional bar association, a practice considered novel at the time. One of his nominees, John Paul Stevens, was selected by President Gerald Ford as a justice of the United States Supreme Court.

Literary opinions

Percy said of The Autobiography of Malcolm X, "Every white person should read it."

Marriage and family

Percy was a Christian Scientist. During World War II, he married Jeanne Valerie Dickerson. They had twin daughters, Valerie and Sharon (born 1944) and a son Roger (born 1946). After Jeanne Percy's death in 1947, Percy married Loraine Diane Guyer in 1950. They also had two children: Gail (born 1953) and Mark (born 1955).

Percy's daughter Valerie was beaten and stabbed to death in her bed on September 18, 1966, in the family's home on Lake Michigan in Kenilworth, while the family was in residence. Although her stepmother had a brief glimpse of the killer and considerable resources were devoted to solving the crime, the identity of the murderer remains unknown.

In 1967 her twin sister Sharon Percy married John D. Rockefeller IV. He became a politician and was later as elected Democratic Governor of West Virginia (1977–1985). He served as a United States Senator for West Virginia from 1985 till 2015.

Percy remained active after leaving political office but suffered from Alzheimer's disease in later years. He died on September 17, 2011, at the Washington Home and Community Hospice in Washington, D.C.. It was the day before the 45th anniversary of his daughter Valerie's death.

Awards