Floyd Haskell

{{Infobox officeholder

|birth_name = Floyd Kirk Haskell

|image = FloydHaskell.jpg

|imagesize = 164px

|alt =

|jr/sr1 = This code has been disabled per Template talk:Infobox Officeholder.

|state1 = Colorado

|term_start1 = January 3, 1973

|term_end1 = January 3, 1979

|predecessor1= Gordon Allott

|successor1= William L. Armstrong

|office2 = Member of the Colorado House of Representatives

|term2 = 1965-1969

|birth_date = {{birth date|1916|2|7}}

|birth_place = Morristown, New Jersey, U.S.

|death_date = {{death date and age|mf=yes|1998|8|25|1916|2|7}}

|death_place = Washington, D.C., U.S.

|restingplace =

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|nationality =

|party = Republican (before 1970)
Democratic (1970–1998)

|spouse = Eileen Nicoll (1941–1976; divorced; 3 children)
Nina Totenberg (1979–1998; his death)

|relations =

|children =

|residence =

|alma_mater = Harvard University

|occupation =

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|cabinet =

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|allegiance={{flag|United States|1912}}

|branch={{army|United States}}

|serviceyears=1941–1945

|battles=World War II

|rank=Major

}}

Floyd Kirk Haskell (February 7, 1916{{spaced ndash}}August 25, 1998) was an American lawyer and politician. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as a U.S. Senator from Colorado from 1973 to 1979.

Early life and career

Floyd Haskell was born in Morristown, New Jersey, to Edward Kirk and Gladys (née Clarkson) Haskell.{{cite news|date=March 25, 2005|work=Hartford Courant|title=Unkelbach, Evelyn Cary|url=https://www.courant.com/2005/03/25/unkelbach-evelyn-cary/}} His father was an investment banker.{{cite news|date=August 26, 1998|work=The New York Times|title=Floyd Haskell, 82, Ex-Senator From Colorado|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1998/08/26/us/floyd-haskell-82-ex-senator-from-colorado.html|last=Alvarez|first=Lizette}} He attended Harvard College, where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1937.{{cite news|work=Biographical Directory of the United States Congress|title=HASKELL, Floyd Kirk, (1916 - 1998)|url=http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=H000317}} During college, he played on the football, rugby, and soccer teams, later developing as a tennis player, and was president of the Rocky Mountain Club.{{cite news|date=November 9, 1935|work=The Harvard Crimson|title=CRIMSON SOCCER TEAM TREKS TO JUNGLELAND|url=http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1935/11/9/crimson-soccer-team-treks-to-jungleland/?print=1}}{{cite news|date=June 21, 1951|work=The Harvard Crimson|title=Listing of Harvard Clubs

|url=http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1951/6/21/listing-of-harvard-clubs-pblondon-clubb/?print=1}}{{cite news|date=October 22, 1935|work=The Harvard Crimson|title=Lining Them Up|url=http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1935/10/22/lining-them-up-ptheyre-taking-their}} He received a law degree from Harvard Law School in 1941. That same year he married Eileen Nicoll, to whom he remained married until their divorce in 1976; they had three daughters, Ione, Evelyn, and Pamela.{{cite news|work=Colorado General Assembly|title=MEMORIALIZING FORMER UNITED STATES SENATOR AND STATE REPRESENTATIVE FLOYD K. HASKELL|url=http://www.state.co.us/gov_dir/leg_dir/sess1999/hres99/hjm1001.htm|access-date=January 10, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050908025522/http://www.state.co.us/gov_dir/leg_dir/sess1999/hres99/hjm1001.htm|archive-date=September 8, 2005|url-status=dead}}

During World War II, Haskell served in the U.S. Army from 1941 to 1945, seeing action in Asia, viewing the immediate aftermath of Hiroshima, and reaching the rank of major. He was awarded a Bronze Star Medal for his intelligence work. Following his military service, he was admitted to the bar in 1946 and moved to Denver, Colorado, where he worked as a tax lawyer.

In 1964, Haskell was elected as a Republican to the Colorado House of Representatives from Arapahoe County, serving until 1969. As a state legislator, he became assistant majority leader in 1967 and also served as chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and a member of the House Education and Finance Committees. In 1970, he left the Republican Party and became a Democrat in protest of President Richard Nixon's invasion of Cambodia.

U.S. Senate

In 1972, Haskell decided to challenge three-term Republican incumbent Gordon L. Allott for a seat in the U.S. Senate. He defeated state Senator Anthony Vollack in the Democratic primary.{{cite news|date=September 10, 1972|work=The New York Times|title=Primary Season Stretches On, With 9 More Tuesday|last=Rosenthal|first=Jack}} In the general election, he narrowly won457,545 a four-way race between Allott447,957 and candidates from the Raza Unida Party13,228 and the American Independent Party,7,353 receiving only 49% of the vote.{{cite news|work=Clerk of the United States House of Representatives|title=Statistics of the Presidential and Congressional Election of November 7, 1972|url=http://clerk.house.gov/member_info/electionInfo/1972election.pdf}}{{cite web|url=http://theelectionsgeek.com/post/138472894653/united-states-congressional-elections-1972|title=United States Congressional Elections 1972 - Colorado|website=The Elections Geek|access-date=October 12, 2018}} He defeated his closest competitor, Senator Allott, by less than 10,000 votes while President Nixon carried Colorado by over 267,000 votes.

Haskell was sworn into the Senate on January 3, 1973. He served as a member of the Senate Finance and Energy and Natural Resources Committees, where he earned a reputation as a tax reformer and an environmentalist. He supported the historic Alaska Lands legislation and regulation of auto emissions, the Panama Canal treaties, and alternative sources of energy.{{cite news|date=August 26, 1998|newspaper=The Washington Post|title=Floyd Haskell Dies|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/campaigns/junkie/links/haskell.htm}} In 1978, lacking campaign funds and media acumen, he was defeated for re-election by Congressman William L. Armstrong, the first in Colorado to raise over a million dollars, losing by a landslide margin of 59%-40%.{{cite news|work=Clerk of the United States House of Representatives|title=Statistics of the Congressional Election of November 7, 1978|url=http://clerk.house.gov/member_info/electionInfo/1978election.pdf}}

Later life and death

After his Senate career, Haskell established his residence in Washington, D.C., where he practiced law before joining Common Cause and a bipartisan group of retired lawmakers calling for campaign finance reform and an end to congressional gridlock. In 1979, he married Nina Totenberg, the legal affairs correspondent for National Public Radio; they remained married until his death in 1998.

Haskell suffered a cerebral hemorrhage in 1994 after falling on ice near his home in Washington. He died of pneumonia four years later, at age 82, while returning from a vacation in Maine with his wife.

References

External links

{{C-SPAN|35960}}

{{U.S. Senator box| class=2 | state=Colorado | before=Gordon L. Allott | after= William L. Armstrong | years= 1973–1979 | alongside= Peter H. Dominick, Gary Hart}}

{{s-ttl|title=Democratic Party nominee for United States Senator from Colorado (Class 2)|years=1972, 1978}}

Category:1916 births

Category:1998 deaths

Category:Burials at Arlington National Cemetery

Category:Colorado lawyers

Category:Harvard Law School alumni

Category:Members of the Colorado House of Representatives

Category:Politicians from Morristown, New Jersey

Category:Military personnel from Morristown, New Jersey

Category:Lawyers from Morristown, New Jersey

Category:United States Army officers

Category:Colorado Democrats