David L. Boren, a popular reform-oriented Democrat who led Oklahoma to governor and represented it in the US Senate in three terms, said in the Senate, where he was the influential voice of national intelligence. He passed away Thursday at his home in Norman, Oklahoma. .
The death was confirmed by his lawyer, Clark Brewster.
Boren, the son of a member of the Oklahoma House of Representatives, has been a member of state legislators (1967-75), the youngest governor of the country (1975-79), and the Senator (1979-94), due to his academic brilliance as a Rhodes academic. He became the longest service chair of the Intelligence Election Committee. His early excellence grew even further when he served as president of the University of Oklahoma.
To dramatically improve his campaign for the governor in 1974, Mr. Boren Bloom Brigade, a powerful 5,000-man “Borren Bloom Brigade” in the Capitol in Oklahoma City, as Mr. Boren vowed to “clean the old guards” with reforms. ” has come to an end. In his single term, he cuts state income taxes, abolishes spousal inheritance taxes, pushes anti-crime laws, improves troubled prison systems, and public for talented students It funded education and called the so-called Sunset Act to eliminate around 100 state agencies. , committees and boards.
Indeed, red state today, Oklahoma has long been a democratic hub until the last few decades.
Boren, who rose to national prominence in the Senate, has become a centralist and has become a Republican on many issues with Democrats Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan and George HW Bush. Ta. He defended tax cuts and campaign finance reforms to limit the impact of wealthy donors. From 1987 to 1993, as chairman of the Intelligence Election Committee, he helped shape foreign policy and was the leader of Central Intelligence Director George J. Tenet.
Boren was also committed to building bipartisan support for South Africa’s sanctions over apartheid race law, and in 1990 he released African National Assembly leader Nelson Mandela in a 27-year prison. I helped to secure it. Mandela served as South Africa’s president from 1994 to 1999, and he and Boren became friends.
Boren resigned midway through his third Senate term to accept the presidency at the University of Oklahoma. During his long tenure from 1994 to 2018, he increased the number of registrations and scholarships, introduced new academic and research programs, raised more funds for donated professors, and student housing. We have expanded the class and added classes.
For most of his university presidents, Boren was not far from the national political spotlight. There was talk of a third-party presidential campaign by New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg in 2007, and Boren was a potential running mate. However, in 2008, Boren approved Sen. Barack Obama for the president. Obama was later appointed as Co-Chair of the Intelligence Newsletter Advisory Committee for nonpartisan presidents.
Boren also made a national headline in 2015 by closing the campus branch of Sigma Alpha Epsilon, the nation’s largest university fraternity. The vow that African Americans will never be allowed to participate in the campus chapter.
Boren retired as university president in 2018.
A few months later, in February 2019, Oklahoma news outlets said that former university student and teaching assistant Jess Eddie had given Norman police forces, and that Boren would prefer him in a hotel room in Houston in November. He reported that he had not made sexual advances. 2010. Both were drinking alcohol, he said. They and other university officials were in Houston for a weekend of meetings on alumni associations, fundraising and student recruitment.
The University of Oklahoma alumni accuser has said in multiple interviews with nondoc.com, an independent journalism website based in Oklahoma, that Boren “touches” and “kisses” “once or twice.” He was quoted as saying he had sexually harassed him. The semester from 2010 to 2012.” The university hired law firm Jonesday to investigate the allegations. The Oklahoma Bureau of Investigation was also involved.
Nondoc.com admitted that Eddy had called Boren, saying he “sought compensation for my pain and suffering” and that he regretted the call.
Boren’s attorney, Robbie Burke, rejected the allegation. “We have not received complaints, but President Boren has denies it by highlighting inappropriate and illegal activities,” he said. “He has been a dedicated civil servant for over 50 years and his life is an open book in Oklahoma.”
The results of the Jonesday investigation were not released, and the allegations did not lead to criminal charges or civil lawsuits. Nevertheless, the episode urged Boren to cut ties with the university.
David Lyle Boren was born in Washington on April 21, 1941 to Lyle H. Boren and Christine (McConne) Boren. He had a younger sister, Susan. His father, who served in the House from 1937 to 1947, was a conservative Oklahoma Democrat who opposed the growth of the government and what he considered excessive federal spending.
David grew up and attended school in Seminole, Oklahoma. He graduated from Bethesda Chevy Chase High School in Bethesda, Maryland in 1959. of the Yale Political Union. He graduated in 1963 near the top of his class. As a Rhodes scholar, he received his Masters degree in philosophy, politics and economics from Oxford University in 1965.
Entering Oklahoma politics, Boren won a seat in the state House of Representatives in 1966, serving a two-year term of office for four years. He received his law degree from the University of Oklahoma in 1968. He rose to the Oklahoma National Guard for ten years to become captain at the command of a supply company. He chaired the Faculty of Social Sciences at Oklahoma Baptist University in Shawnee.
The Watergate scandal, which President Richard M. Nixon forced his resignation in 1974, permeated politics when Boren ran for governor that year, and he gained status as a reformer of the national government. did. He defeated incumbent Democratic governor David Hall and Republican James Inoff in the general election. (Inhof was later elected to the House and Senate. He passed away in July.)
At the age of 33, Boren was the youngest governor in the country when he took office in January 1975.
As governor, he reformed the state’s workers’ compensation laws and promoted many improvements to the state’s correctional system. This was shaken up from the 1973 riot at McClester’s overcrowded state prison.
He also attracted a lot of attention during the energy crisis of the mid-1970s by calling for national deregulation of natural gas prices. President Carter was appointed to chair the task force to study the issue. His actions well placed him to the next move, the Senate.
Shortly after graduating from law school in 1968, Boren married Janna Lou Little, whose father, Reuel Little, had run for governor on the American Party ticket. The couple divorced in 1976.
In 1977, Boren married Oklahoma County judge Molly W. Shee. They exchanged vows at the governor’s mansion.
He was survived by his wife. two children from his first marriage, David Daniel Boren and Carrie Headington; and many grandchildren. His sister, Susan Boren Dorman, passed away in 2020.
Mr. Boren’s son, who went under the name of Daniel, was elected to the House of Representatives in 2004 as a Democrat and served four terms before returning to his personal life.
David Boren was inducted into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame in 1988.
As his 26-year political career approached a close in 1994, Boren wrote an opinion piece for The New York Times entitled “Why am I leaving the Senate?” He spoke of his fatigue after spending 14 hours of years of contemplation, family relationships, personal friendships, and even time to exchange ideas with fellow senators.
“I’ve come to believe that our country’s revitalization comes from grassroots, not from Washington. “If America gets everything else right, but can’t provide the next generation of education, I’ll be They lose their power as a society. A reporter asked me, “Why do you give up on power and influence to become a university president?” My answer: At this point, I feel I can do better at university. ”
In 2011, he published “A Letters America.” This warns that the public is in trouble. Because he was virtually paralyzed by the unlimited partisanship, the corrosive effects of large amounts of money, and the growing disparity between the very wealthy and others. Political process.
“Truthfully,” he wrote, “we are at a serious risk of decline as a nation.”
Ash Wu contributed the report.
