Thomas Richard Huening (born January 5, 1942) is an American author, politician, and businessman from San Mateo County, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. In his public service role he is known for his fiscal responsibility and his forward-thinking policy initiatives, such as his authorship of California's anti-gerrymandering Proposition 119 on June 1990 ballot, creation of the Garfield Charter School, and his advocacy to extend public transportation from San Francisco into San Mateo County, for which he authored San Mateo County ballot Measure K (BART to San Francisco Airport) and Measure A (Countywide Transportation Expenditure Plan). A published poet, his latest work Spiritual Choices is non-fiction prose dealing with spirituality.
Huening was born in Chicago, Illinois, the second of twelve children of Clarence Edward Huening and Hermina Ann Huening (née Huberts). With his first wife Kathleen Bernice Hynes he is the father of four daughters, all of whom live in the Bay Area.
Bachelor of Arts degree in 1965 from DePaul University, Chicago, in Speech, Public Speaking, and Persuasion.
Bachelor of Laws, La Salle Extension University, Chicago, subsequently passing the California Bar exam.
MBA, Pepperdine University.
passed California's Certified Public Accountant exam in 2003.
1965-1970: jet fighter pilot in the US Navy, serving in Vietnam, and flying the F-8 Crusader, UC-45J Navigator, S-2 Tracker (co-pilot), A-7 Corsair, and A-4 Skyhawk.
1970-1987: commercial pilot for TWA, for which he flew as pilot/flight engineer the Convair 880, Boeing 707, and Boeing 727.
1970-1976: vice-president, Coldwell Banker Commercial Real Estate in San Jose, Sacramento, and San Francisco, California.
elected trustee of San Mateo County Community College District in 1981, serving until 1986.
elected to the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors, serving 1987 through 1998.
elected in 1998 as the San Mateo County Controller; reelected in 2002, 2006, and 2010; retired mid-term from public service in 2012.
in 1992 Huening was the Republican candidate for US Congress in California's 14th District. As part of his campaign, he organized the Omaha Summit, a post-election gathering of reform-minded freshman Representatives to the US House. Despite losing to Democrat Anna Eshoo, who still holds this seat, he attended the event held in Omaha, Nebraska, on November 30, 1992.
created and served on Board of Directors of Garfield Charter School (California charter school #49).
1977 to the present: runs Huening Investment Corp., a commercial real estate development firm in the Bay Area
Spiritual Choices (published 2006, reissued 2008 as Spiritual Choices: Putting the HERE in Hereafter), a nonfiction work examining what the world's major religions have to offer to the spiritually minded.
editor of and contributor to "Unicorn: A Contemporary Journal", published by the College of San Mateo.
regular contributor of political op-ed articles.
