– 2018 Individual Inductee –
Arlen Specter
Arlen Specter, the youngest of four children born to Russian Jewish parents Harry and Lillie (Shanin) Specter, was born in Wichita, Sedgwick County, Kansas, on February 12, 1930. He attended the public schools there until the family moved to Russell, Kansas when Arlen was twelve. Arlen later attended Russell High School and graduated in 1947.
Arlen studied first at the University of Oklahoma before transferring to the University of Pennsylvania, where he majored in international relations and graduated in 1951. The Specter family moved to Philadelphia as well when his sister Shirley became of marriageable age, because there were no other eligible Jews in Russell. During the Korean War Arlen served stateside in the United States Air Force from 1951 to 1953, obtaining the rank of First Lieutenant as an officer in the Air Force Office of Special Investigations Corps.
It was a dance that college sophomore Arlen Specter first met Joan Levy. Four years later, in June 1953, they were married, and raised two sons, Shanin and Steve. That fall Arlen entered Yale University Law School, from which he graduated in 1956. He was admitted to the Pennsylvania bar and opened a law partnership with Marvin Katz in Philadelphia. Arlen became an assistant district attorney under District Attorney James C. Crumlish, Jr. from 1959 to 1964.
At the recommendation of Representative Gerald Ford, he worked as an assistant counsel in 1964 for the President’s Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy, more commonly known as the Warren Commission. Specter co-authored the “single bullet theory“, which suggested the non-fatal wounds to Kennedy and wounds to Texas Governor John Connally were caused by the same bullet. In 1965 Arlen ran for district attorney of Philadelphia, a job he won and held until 1974. He then resumed practicing law but maintained his interest in politics. Arlen ran in 1976 in the Republican primary for the U.S. Senate and was defeated. In 1978, he was defeated in the primary for Governor of Pennsylvania.
In 1980 Arlen was elected to the United States Senate from Pennsylvania. He was a moderate who came to be considered a “maverick” that was often at odds with his own party, who kept his own counsel and plotted his own course through the political issues of the day. Arlen won reelection to the seat four more times, in reelected in 1986, 1992, 1998 and 2004. He was chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence from 1995 until 1997, when he became chairman of the Committee on Veterans Affairs. Arlen chaired that committee until 2001 and again from 2003 to 2005. Arlen also chaired the Judiciary Committee from 2005 to 2007.
On March 31, 1995, Arlen announced his candidacy for President of the United States. He ran as a moderate alternative to his conservative opponents, but ultimately suspended his campaign on November 23, 1995 and endorsed his Senate colleague and fellow Russell, Kansas associate Bob Dole.
On April 30, 2009, Arlen announced that he no longer agreed with the philosophy of the Republican Party and switched his party affiliation to the Democratic Party. Arlen lost his renomination bid to the U.S. Senate in 2010, ending a thirty-year career as the longest serving senator in Pennsylvania history.
In 2011 Arlen donated to Philadelphia University nearly 2,700 boxes of historical papers and memorabilia dating from his career as a Philadelphia district attorney to his service as a United States senator, including materials associated with his role as assistant counsel on the Warren Commission. The collection was to be jointly managed by the University of Pittsburgh, which will house, organize, and manage the collection. The Specter Collection will also support The Arlen Specter Center for Public Policy at Philadelphia University.
In the fall of 2011 Arlen joined the University of Pennsylvania Law School as an adjunct faculty member. He taught an upper level course on the relationship between Congress and the U.S. Supreme Court, focusing on separation of powers and the confirmation process. For this course the National Jurist named him as one of the “23 professors to take before you die.”
On February 16, 2005, Arlen announced that he had been diagnosed with an advanced form of Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a type of cancer. Despite this, Arlen continued working during chemotherapy. On April 15, 2008, Arlen announced his cancer had returned and underwent a second round of chemotherapy. On August 28, 2012, it was announced that Arlen was battling cancer yet again. Arlen died from complications of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma on October 14, 2012, at his home in Philadelphia. He was 82 years old. Arlen was laid to rest in Shalom Memorial Park at Huntingdon Valley, Pennsylvania.
Arlen Specter was respected by many as a principled statesman who did much for his state and country. It was said that he had done more for the state Pennsylvania than anyone else, with the possible exception of Benjamin Franklin himself. All U.S. flags at public institutions and military bases across the country and beyond were lowered to half-staff on his day of interment as a sign of respect. His was a life well-lived, and Arlen is an honored selection to the First Class of the Russell County Kansas Hall of Fame.
​
SOURCES:
Belleville Telescope, July 25, 1980.
bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=S000709, Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, Arlen Specter.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arlen_Specter
Stritof, Sheri & Bob. “Joan Levy and Arlen Specter”. About.com – Marriage. About.com. Archived from the original on 4 April 2013. Retrieved March 30, 2013.
Report of the Select Committee on Assassinations of the U.S. House of Representatives. Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office. 1979. p. 44.
“Specter bolts the GOP”. Firstread.msnbc.msn.com. April 29, 2009. Archived from the original on July 9, 2012. Retrieved June 13, 2010.
“Longtime GOP Sen. Arlen Specter becomes Democrat”. CNN. April 28, 2009. Archived from the original on May 2, 2009. Retrieved April 28, 2009.
“Senator Arlen Specter to Teach at the University of Pennsylvania Law School | Penn News”. Upenn.edu. January 4, 2011. Retrieved April 8, 2011.
www.thedailybeast.com/arlen-specter-a-one-of-a-kind-senator