John G. Tower Chronology

John G. Tower

The protection of our security, our vital issues abroad, the support of our well-motivated foreign policy objectives, and the continuing quest for freedom are our highest calling. - John G. Tower

1925	Born September 29 in Houston, Texas.
1942	Graduates from Beaumont High School in Beaumont, Texas. Enrolls as a student at Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas.
1943	June, enlists in the U.S. Navy.
1943-1946	Serves aboard amphibious gunboat in the Western Pacific.
1946	March, discharged from Navy with rank of Seaman First Class.
1946-1989	Enlisted officer in the United States Naval Reserve.
1948 1948-1949	Receives B.A. in political science from Southwestern University. Radio announcer at station KFDM in Beaumont, Texas Radio announcer at country and western radio station KTAE in Taylor, Texas.
1949-1951	Graduate student at Southern Methodist University.
1950-1951	Insurance agent, Dallas, Texas.
1951-1960	Assistant Professor of Political Science at Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls, Texas.
1952	March 21, marries Lou Bullington in Wichita Falls. They have three children: Penny (1954), Marian (1955) and Jeanne (1956). John and Lou are divorced in December 1976.
1952-1953	Does graduate work at the London School of Economics and Political Science of the University of London, including field work on the organization of the Conservative Party in Britain.
1953	Receives M.A. in political science from Southern Methodist University. Master’s thesis entitled, “The Conservative Worker in Britain: Why a Working Man Supports the Tories.”
1954	Runs losing race for Texas State Representative from 81st District.
1956	Texas delegate to the Republican National Convention. Serves as delegate again in 1960, 1964, 1968, 1972, and 1980.
1960	June, resigns his position at Midwestern State University to run against Lyndon B. Johnson for U.S. Senate in the November general election. Johnson wins the Senate seat, but he also wins election as Vice-President. When Johnson resigns the Senate seat, William Blakely is appointed to fill the position until a special election, required by Texas law, can be held.
1961	On April 4, leads a field of 70 candidates in the Special Senate Election. On May 27, wins runoff election. Takes office on June 15, becoming the first Republican senator elected from Texas since 1870, the third in the history of the state, and the first from a southern state since Reconstruction. At the age of 35, is the youngest senator in the 87th Congress.
1961	Named Kappa Sigma Man of the Year.
1961-1964	Serves on Labor and Public Welfare Committee
	*The senator with his parents, Dr. Joe Z. and Beryl Goodwin Tower, at the Tower family farm near Douglasville, Texas in 1966.*
1961-1984	Serves on Banking and Currency Committee, later called Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, 1971-1985.
1962, 1969-1984	Serves on Senate Republican Policy Committee.
1962-1963	Member of National Republican Senatorial Committee. Also a member from 1969-1970 and 1973-1974.
1962	Writes book, A Program for Conservatives , with a foreword by Barry Goldwater (McFadden, 1962).
1963-1977	Serves on the Joint Committee on Defense Production.
1964	Receives honorary Doctor of Literature degree from Southwestern University.
1965-1984	Serves on Senate Armed Services Committee.
1966	Wins election to second term as U.S. Senator by margin of 56.7 percent, or approximately 200,000 votes. Wins one-third of the Mexican-American vote in Texas.
1968	Named Distinguished Alumnus of Southwestern University.
1968-1991	Member of Southwestern University’s Board of Trustees.
1969-1970	Chairs National Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee.
1972	Wins re-election to a third term as U.S. Senator. Campaign directed by Nola Smith, one of the few women to head a major campaign at this time.
1973-1984	Chairs Senate Republican Policy Committee.
1975	Southwestern University inaugurates the Tower-Hester Chair of Political Science.
1975-1976	Vice-Chairman of Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities (Church Committee).
1977	May, marries Lilla Burt Cummings. They are divorced in 1987.
1977-1979	Member of the Select Committee on Ethics.
1977 1979-1980	Member of the Rules and Administration Committee.
1978	Wins re-election to fourth term as U.S. Senator.
1980	Chairs National Republican Platform Committee.
1981-1984	Chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee.
1983	August 23, announces plans to retire from the Senate in a news conference at the state capitol in Austin, Texas.
1984	*Reading Colonel Travis’ letter from the Alamo at the annual Texas Independence Day celebration, 1984.*
1985	January 3, retires from the United States Senate. January 18, named by President Ronald Reagan to serve as Chief U.S. Negotiator with the rank of ambassador at the Strategic Arms Reduction Talks with the former Soviet Union in Geneva.
1986	April, resigns post as U.S. Negotiator to enter private business. November, appointed by President Reagan to chair the President’s Special Review Board (also known as the Tower Commission) to study the role and functions of the National Security Council and NSC staff during the Iran-Contra Affair.
1986-1988	Distinguished lecturer in political science at Southern Methodist University.
1987	“Report of the President’s Special Review Board” issued February 26.
1987-1991	Serves on President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board. Chairman of Tower, Eggers and Greene Consulting, Inc., Dallas and Washington.
1988	Nominated by President Bush to be Secretary of Defense.
1989	January-March, Secretary of Defense Senate confirmation hearings. March, nomination rejected by the Senate. Retires from U.S. Naval Reserve with rank of Master Chief Boatswain’s Mate.
1990	July, appointed by President Bush to chair the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board.
1991	February, autobiography, Consequences: A Personal and Political Memoir (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1991), is published. April 5, Senator Tower dies in a commuter plane crash near New Brunswick, Georgia, which also kills his daughter, Marian.